The One in the Future
by Riley Urban
Summary: Set 4yrs after the end of season 10.  All the friends are married or engaged now and live in the subburbs, they're all happy until something terrible happens to each family
1. Chapter 1

**Friends**

**Welcome to the Future**

**Riley Urban**

**Chapter One**

"Emma" Rachel Geller called to her five year old daughter, the only accident in her life that had actually come to something worth having "come here please, darling"

Emma did exactly as she was told, as always, she was such a good girl "yes mommy" Emma's innocent grin stared up at her mother's beautiful blue eyes

"Yes darling" Rachel gently stroked Emma's pale cheek, let her fingers run through her white blonde hair and felt an even stronger sense of love than ever before for her, which happened almost every time they saw each other "can you get Charlotte's teddy please?"

"Of course mommy"

Rachel looked down at Charlotte, her nine month old baby girl, this one wasn't an accident, she had been conceived in love once Rachel and her now husband Ross had realized that about eight years had been wasted and they were in fact deeply in love. Charlotte smiled up at her mommy and put her small thumb into her gummy mouth and sucked on it sweetly. Emma returned to the room with Charlotte's pink teddy and almost immediately started jumping up and down in the same way any five year old little girl who was highly excited would do

"Can I go and ask Erica if she wants to come and play please?"

"Sure darling" Rachel smiled, "why don't you ask Auntie Monica if she would like to come round for a chat?"

"Okay mommy, so does that mean that Erica and Jack can come here to play?"

"Of course!"

Emma skipped sweetly towards the beautiful antique wooden gate in the fence with the beautiful detailed carving that separated the Geller family from the Bing family, the four of them had paid a very large amount to have it specially made and Ross and Chandler had traveled all the way to Texas to pick it up. Emma had done this on many occasions and therefore was able to undo the very large latch herself. She then decided to skip up to the oak front door that Monica had brought from an expensive one off shop even though she could have got something very similar from Pottery Barn. Emma took a big step up onto the white painted wooden stool that allowed her to reach the doorbell and pressed it. The doorbell played a little tune and Emma waited for either Monica or Chandler to answer. Emma always played a little game with herself as to who would answer the door. On a week day this game would be very easy as it was normally Monica because Chandler was at work, at weekends it was a little more difficult. As it was a Friday Emma guessed it would be Monica, and she was right.

"Hello Emma" Monica Bing smiled sweetly at her niece, not surprised that on this sunny Friday after school Emma would come and ask to play with her best friends, Monica's twins "would you like to play with Jack and Erica?"

"Yes please!" Emma smiled the sweet smile that always melted Monica's heart, Emma loved her auntie Monica and uncle Chandler almost as much as she loved her mommy and daddy, and knew exactly how to play them just like she knew how to play her parents "Mommy would like to talk to you"

"Okay, shall we go back to your house?"

"Mommy would like that"

"Okay" Monica turned to call Erica and Jack, but they had heard Emma and come to the door to see her "okay kids, let's go see Charlotte and Auntie Rachel.

"Hey man" Chandler Bing laughed down the phone, really excited to be talking to Joey after the week he had had at work, as advertising hadn't worked out for him, he had managed to get his old job back in Manhattan and now he was continuously worried about the WENUS (Weekly Estimated Net Usage System, it was a processing term) "when are you coming to see us?"

"Soon" Joey Tribbianni answered from the other end of the phone, equally excited that the time was coming for his secret to be revealed "my flight leaves at 9am tomorrow morning, so, I'll see you tomorrow afternoon,

"Excellent" Chandler thought for a minute, hoping that the answer to the next question would be a positive one "are you bringing Alex too?"

"Hell yeah" Joey smiled, he wasn't even a little bit worried about Chandler and the rest of the group meeting Alex, he knew she would love them, after all they had accepted Janice when Chandler was with him "we've got a surprise for you all" he immediately regretted telling Chandler about the surprise, he knew Chandler would be itching to find out what it was there and then

"Oh, tell me" Chandler couldn't resist bouncing up and down on his office chair making it squeak, he suddenly realized that it was attracting the wrong kind of attention from his assistant and stopped immediately

"No, then it wouldn't be a surprise"

"Is Alex pregnant?" the squeaking started again

"No" Joey answered, obviously lying, Joey knew that he would eventually tell Chandler and so decided that if Chandler pushed more he would just tell him and swear him to secrecy

"She is isn't she?" Chandler's excitement was so apparent and the squeaking got louder until Chandler's assistant was actually looking at him in a weird way "congratulations"

"Pretend to be surprised when we tell you" Joey insisted "and don't say anything to anyone, even Monica, Alex doesn't want anyone to know yet"

"sure thing man" Chandler promised, he started to ponder the information that he had just received from one of his best friends and felt a lump rise in his throat, knowing that Joey was the last one of the six original group to become a parent "this is so amazing, now we'll all have at least one"

"I know, there's so many of them now, how's Phoebe and Mike getting on with Daisy?" Joey was genuinely interested in the tiny baby that Phoebe had given birth to just weeks before

"Fine, as far as I know" Chandler was less interested

"Good. I can't believe they have three children now!"

"Yeah, look man, I gotta go, lunch time is over!"

"Okay, I'll see you Saturday" Joey brightened up even more than before

"Yeah, see you then!" Chandler thought about Joey and Alex and the new baby that would be arriving at some point over the next nine months. He then thought about Monica his beautiful wife and his twins Erica and Jack, they would be at home now, or at Rachel and Ross's house. Chandler looked down at his watch 4:30pm. Wow he had taken a late lunch today. He so wanted to be at home with his family but for the next 90 minutes he was stuck here worrying about the WENUS. He would then have the 45min commute home to his house in the suburbs. Man he was working too hard!


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Joey looked out of the window of the Boeing 777 at JFK airport. He turned and looked back into the pale blue eyes of Alexis Garrett, his pregnant girlfriend, the love of his life. He had met her in LA, and once again they were neighbors. When he first arrived there she had been married, but he had felt a connection straight away. They had got together one drunken night after Alex's divorce had come through and then spent weeks carrying on carrying on until they had finally admitted to each other that they were both desperately in love, with each other. That had been two years ago and now Alex was pregnant and Joey was planning to propose

"You know I love you right?" Joey couldn't help but let a tear fall from his eye, his soft voice was filled with love and honesty. Alex wiped the tear away and pulled Joey's chin gently towards her, she thought about their lives together so far, in the last two years Joey had completely changed his life around, he'd gone from sleeping with anything that had legs and boobs to being a one woman man. This alone meant that Joey could be trusted, in Alex's eyes

"Of course I do, and I love you too" she kissed him gently on the lips and once again fell a little bit more in love with him "what's brought this on?"

Joey turned to look back out of the plane window "it's just, being back here!" Joey paused for a minute, he knew he was going to sound like a right idiot but she needed to know how he felt "I was a completely different person the last time I was here and I don't want you to think that I'm going back to my old ways."

"I don't think that" Alex squeezed Joey's hand which caused him to look back into her eyes, every time Alex and Joey looked into each others eyes they fell a little bit more in love with each other "I trust you baby, you were that person when you first arrived in LA, I knew that person and I fell in love with him straight away, now you're my Joey, my partner, Joey. I'm having your baby and I love you more than I've ever loved anyone"

"I love you too, Alex" Joey's words never, ever sounded so sincere "more than you'll ever know."

By the time they reached arrivals Alex was so tired and extremely nervous, it had really angered Joey that no one at baggage claim had let Alex, who was eight months pregnant sit down anywhere. It was the first time she had met Joey's friends, although she had heard a lot about them, and she simply didn't know what to expect.

"What if your friends don't like me?" Alex questioned nervously, I don't want to feel left out!"

"Hey baby" Joey responded, "they'll love you!"

"So, remind me of their names again" Alex thought hard and prepared herself for the information that was coming her way.

"Well there's Ross and Rachel with Ben, Emma and Charlotte, Monica and Chandler with Erica and Jack and Phoebe and Mike with Libby, Summer and Daisy"

"Have you told them that I'm pregnant?" Alex looked down at her eight month's pregnant belly "because they'll soon work it out!"

Joey wasn't really sure what to say, he wanted to tell her the truth as he had promised her after one very hairy argument a few months ago to always be honest with her, unless he was planning a surprise, that was the one exception to the rule "Chandler guessed" Joey smiled, "but I asked him not to say anything to anyone, not even Monica"

"What do you think of the name Lola?" Alex asked, completely out of the blue and obviously not minding that Joey had let it slip to his best friend "I like Lola"

"it's an idea" Joey smiled and then thought about what he wanted for their baby "but I really like Marie, now come on, lets go and meet the guys!"

Joey and Alex walked through the gate and Alex looked up to see the most amazing banner that read 'WELCOME HOME JOEY and WELCOME TO THE GANG, ALEX' Mike had obviously spent a lot of time on the banner as Joey had noticed that it was 10 times as good as the one he had made for the twins. Alex was so touched that she had to wipe a tear away from her blue eye.

"Uncle Joey!" Emma ran across the floor dragging her gray (once white) blanket behind her straight into Joey's arms. It had been so long since Emma had seen her favorite uncle that Rachel was surprised they were still close

"Hey," Chandler lent forward to give Joey a hug, then turned to look at Alex "you must be Alex?" it took a lot for Chandler to keep his eyes away from her bulging pregnant belly

"Hi" Alex responded, pleased that someone had acknowledged her so quickly and clearly "that's me!"

"I'm Chandler" he thought that she was nice, not Joey's usual type, but maybe that was for the best "Nice to meet you"

"Okay, okay" Joey suddenly was unable to control his excitement and a little bit of the old Joey shone through, in fact Chandler was surprised that there was no dancing to go with it "every body this is Alex" Joey then pointed to her very large bump and just blurted out "and this is our baby"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Rachel collapsed on their large antique looking leather couch after the day that she had had. Rachel thought that she must have been getting old, running around after her two little girls was more exhausting than a whole week when she was working at Ralph Lauren. Every time Rachel sat on the couch she couldn't resist snuggling into it and thinking about how Charlotte had been conceived right there on the couch just eighteen months earlier. It always made her giggle and she always failed miserably at hiding her amusement with the whole situation. Ross always knew what she was thinking about the second she sat down on the couch and always smiled too, he was always much better at hiding his amusement than Rachel was.

"Right" Ross shook his head to try and get the image that Rachel had reminded him of out of his head and then put on his stern father voice "Ben, Emma, bed now please"

"but daddy" Emma put on her sweet eyes that Ross always found really difficult to resist "can't I stay up for just five more minutes?"

"No, Emma, it's late" Ross silently congratulated himself for not giving in to his eldest daughter as in the past he would have done straight away "the quicker you go to bed the quicker tomorrow comes along and you can see Uncle Joey again"

"Okay" Emma needed no more persuasion to go to bed, she couldn't get up the stairs quick enough "night mummy, night daddy, night Ben, night Charlotte"

It didn't take long until all three children were tucked up in bed asleep and Rachel and Ross were curled up on the couch together both of them thinking about the night of Charlotte's conception as they did on most evenings.

"I'm so pleased for Joey" Rachel said suddenly, trying to be able to think about something else while on their couch but she wasn't quite able to get the whole image out of her head "he deserves to be happy"

"Yeah" Ross stroked Rachel's dark blonde hair and gently kissed her on the forehead again trying to think about something other than what happened eighteen months ago "Alex seems lovely"

"She really is" Rachel agreed, thinking Alex would really fit into the group just as Mike had a few years ago "and they're having a baby"

"I know, how perfect is that?" Ross thought back to when he had found out about Emma, his initial freak out hadn't lasted long and then he realized that this was the best thing that ever happened, and now it was happening to Joey as well although he was sure that Joey hadn't freaked out like he did

"Do you think they'll move back to New York, join the gang again?"

Ross thought for a minute "I hope so"

"I think they might" Rachel smiled at the thought that with Alex in the group it would even it out a bit as since Mike joined they were missing another girl and Rachel thought that her and Alex would really get on well "Alex might like to have me and Phoebe around, as people that have given birth, I mean, I just feel bad for Monica, but she can help out with the baby"

"Yeah" Ross grinned, he really wanted to tell Rachel the bit of information that he had received from Monica just that day "can I tell you a secret?"

"Sure baby, oh I'm excited now" Rachel wasn't sure exactly what to expect from Ross, as her brother he knew most things about Monica and had in some drunken instances told Rachel many of Monica's embarrassing stories

"Monica's pregnant"

"Really?" Rachel was unbelievably shocked, she certainly didn't see that coming "why hasn't she told me?"

"she didn't want to say anything until she was past the three months stage, initially and then she just got a bit over cautious, I guess" Ross didn't really know the reason, he was just making an estimated guess based on the past

"how long have you known?" Rachel was started to get a little bit cross with her sister-in-law for not confiding in her

"she told me today, she's five months gone"

"five months?" now Rachel was angry

"yeah, haven't you realized that she's been wearing baggy clothing?"

"yeah, I suppose so and she had that tummy bug for ages" Rachel laughed and shook her head making the anger subside a little bit "I've had two children, why didn't I realize that she was pregnant?"

"I guess no one believed that it could happen, it's always been said that Monica and Chandler couldn't have kids" again, Ross didn't really know, he was just guessing and assuming. Suddenly a cry came through the baby monitor, it was Charlotte's cry, Ross and Rachel both thought it was the most beautiful noise in the world, it had gotten really strong recently.

"Whose turn is it?" Ross smiled, he knew the answer really, he was just trying to get out of it and then changed his mind "do you want me to go?"

"Yes please baby" Rachel was so happy that the had the best father in the world for a husband "I'm so tired today"

Ross dragged himself off the couch and walked across the wooden floor, his large socked feet sounded like an elephant walking across the floor and up the beautiful wooden stairs with the red carpet.

"Ross quiet" Rachel scolded him, laughing in her head "you'll wake Emma"

"Sorry" Ross went onto tiptoe and climbed up the beautiful stairs, he only got half way before he started slipping and sliding all over the place, he managed to get his balance back, just, but Rachel thought it was the funniest thing ever and couldn't conceal it any more. In the meantime Charlotte had obviously got fed up waiting for her daddy to see to her and had fallen back to sleep. Ross gently opened the door and stared in at his sleeping baby daughter. He looked around Charlotte's room and admired Rachel's work, she had painted the room in a beautiful shade of pink and another beautiful shade of lilac. The quilt that Monica had made for Charlotte lay neatly over her just covering up to her chin. Charlotte's pink dummy had fallen out of her mouth, so Ross gently put it back into Charlotte's little mouth and gave her a kiss, she stirred a little bit but soon settled back down.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Mike Hannigan picked up his five day old baby girl and ran his index finger down Daisy's nose, he kissed her on the forehead and then handed her to his wife, Phoebe. Mike walked over to the window of their apartment and shut the deep purple curtains, it took a while for Mike to shut them completely, he had to pull them a couple of times before they blocked out all of the light.

"It was really nice to see Joey wasn't it?" Phoebe briefly turned away from her baby who had now latched onto her breast "I miss Joey when he's not here!"

"yeah" Mike smiled, also looking down at Daisy and thinking about how wonderful a new baby was in any time, but especially with someone like Joey who had been waiting for this for years "I'm pleased they're having a baby"

"Yeah" Phoebe agreed, she thought about Alex, the beautiful girl who had changed Joey the ladies man into Joey the family man "Alex is really nice too, it's just perfect"

"Phoebe, have you noticed anything different about Monica?" Mike knew that Phoebe would have noticed, he was simply bringing up the issue "I think she's pregnant, very pregnant, about five months"

"that's just what I was thinking, I mean after having six children and four pregnancies" Phoebe thought about the beautiful triplets, Frank Junior Junior, Lesley and baby girl Chandler, that she had given birth to when she had been a surrogate mother for her brother "I think we should know"

"Yeah" Mike didn't really enjoy thinking about that time in Phoebe's life, he always liked to think of himself as the one who made Phoebe pregnant

"I'm gonna give her a call and ask her if she is or not!" Phoebe picked up their antique phone that Mike had brought for her when they had gone on holiday to England in the brief period when she wasn't pregnant, and dialed Monica's number.

"Hey Mon, it's Pheebs"

"Hey Pheebs" Monica responded through the phone, slightly concerned about the tone in Phoebe's voice "you okay?"

"yeah" Phoebe silently prepared herself for the question she was just about to ask one of her best friends, Phoebe knew that if she was wrong she would without a doubt really upset Monica seeing as becoming pregnant was the one thing that Monica wanted to do and the one thing that until now, apparently, Monica couldn't do "Monica, are you pregnant?"

"erm, yes!" Monica confessed wondering how on earth Phoebe knew and then thought that maybe her brother wasn't quite as trust worthy as she thought "did Ross tell you?"

"no, Monica you don't go through four pregnancies and give birth to six children without knowing the signs of pregnancy" Phoebe thought that this would be apparent to Monica seeing as she had been there for Phoebe even through the birth of the triplets all those years ago

"okay, sorry, well yes, I'm five months pregnant"

"Congratulations, so who else knows?"

"Just you, Chandler and Ross" Monica sighed down the phone realizing that her secret was not a secret any more "I'm gonna have to tell Rachel and Joey aren't I?"

"Yeah" Phoebe looked at Mike and nodded to acknowledge that what they had thought was right "oh by the way Mike knows"

"Yeah, I thought you would've spoken to him about it" Monica was highly aware that Phoebe and Mike never did anything without discussing it first, there would've been no way that Phoebe would have called without talking to Mike about it

"Well I'm gonna head off, I need to put Daisy to bed"

"Okay Pheebs, see you tomorrow, say goodnight to Mike and Daisy for me"

"will do"

Phoebe placed the phone back on the receiver and smiled at her husband. She walked across the cream carpet that always felt good against her feet to give her daughter one last cuddle before bed time, as she lifted the baby into her arms she looked into her husbands eyes and fell in love with him all over again.

"You know I love you?" she asked her husband of four years, the one that she had chosen between him and David the scientist guy "I love you more than anything in the world"

"I know" Mike smiled, he wished he knew exactly what was going through Phoebe's mind right at that very moment but he had accepted years ago that he would probably never know exactly what was going through Phoebe's mind "I love you more than anything too"

"You Libby, Summer and Daisy are the most important things in my world" Phoebe thought for a minute about her priorities. Of course her husband and children came first but then she thought about all the other families. She was so grateful to them for accepting her when she was just getting back on her feet after living on the streets "then the rest of the guys"

"Would you like me to put Daisy to bed?" Mike always let out a sigh of relief when Phoebe told him that she loved him, every day he hoped and prayed that Phoebe had made the right decision over four years ago in Barbados when she had picked him over David the scientist guy

"yes please" suddenly the telephone started ringing, it was an old English style ring "I'll get that"

"hello" Phoebe sounded a little rushed to Rachel but both of them decided not to worry about it

"hey, Pheebs, its Rachel" she was unsure of how to start the conversation "did you know about Monica?" Rachel thought that Phoebe would try and hide it at first, simply by the initial pause, Rachel had to tell Phoebe that she knew about the baby "it's okay Ross told me that she's pregnant but I'm slightly annoyed with myself because I've been pregnant twice and I didn't notice the signs and I'm annoyed with her for not telling us"

"I knew, but not until today, I did suspect too but again not until today, you'll just have to have more children, Rach" Phoebe didn't want to get into the talk of why Monica hadn't told anyone, it was her choice, she had her own reasons "has Monica actually told you yet?"

"no, I don't know whether to call her or not"

"well I wouldn't

"Why not?" Rachel didn't know what think about this

"just let her tell you in her own time, oh by the way we're looking at the house opposite yours tomorrow" Phoebe was really excited about moving back into the loop seeing as they had been a little bit out of it recently living in the city while everyone else was living in the suburbs

"really, that will be cool, then all we need is for Joey and Alex to move into the house round the corner that's for sale and we will all be together again" Rachel was very excited about the possibility that they would all be within walking distance of each other again, their kids could become as close as they had been

"okay, I'll suggest it to him"

"right Pheebs, well I'll you tomorrow"

"okay bye" Phoebe hoped that the reason Monica hadn't said anything to anyone except her husband and her brother was because she was worried that it was going to go wrong and not for any other reason, she wasn't sure what the reason could be, but she just hoped that it wasn't the case and that her gut feeling was wrong.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

"So, what do you think of my friends?" Joey helped Alex, sit down on the beautiful embroidered quilt hand made by Monica and laid on the bed in Monica and Chandler's beautiful guest room that they were staying in "they're nice aren't they?"

"They're lovely, Joey, all very welcoming" Alex ran her hands across the quilt and looked around the cream painted walls with lots of pictures dotted around the room "this is lovely, Monica is so kind and thoughtful"

"give it time" Joey warned her, thinking back to the many crumbies incidents that tainted the memories of staying at Monica and Rachel's apartment "it'll soon get annoying"

"Ross and Rachel are so unbelievably in love aren't they" Alex thought for a second and hoped that one day her and Joey could be as deeply in love of the woman she had found insanely intimidating originally, but had warmed to since and the man who could not be a better husband and father to his family "I mean, all of your friends are in love with their partners of course, but Ross and Rachel are obviously soul mates, they're just so lovely to each other all of the time, I bet their relationship has been wonderful"

"well we have all wondered about it but for ages it wasn't on. They only just got together before I moved to LA." Joey ran his thoughts through their relationship, the ups the downs, everything

"but what about Ben..." Alex realized the deal and silently cursed herself for being so insensitive and not thinking "sorry, he's obviously not Rachel's, I thought she was a bit young to have a thirteen year old."

"No, Ben's mum died last year, her and Ross were married but they split up before Ben was born, she was a lesbian"

"oh dear, so how did she die?" Alex thought she could explain the lesbian thing another day

"car accident" Joey thought about the whole Ross and Rachel thing, the whole we were on a break incident and the brief period of his life when he was in love with Rachel. Should he tell Alex, or should he just leave it

"How old is Emma?"

"She's five" Joey thought about his God daughter, he loved that little girl almost as if she was his very own, he had missed her, Skype was fine but it wasn't quite the same as seeing her every day

"so she's not Ross'?" Alex realized she had said the wrong thing again and wanted the ground to swallow her up

"yeah, she's Ross'" then he realized he would have to tell Alex the whole story, well, maybe not the whole story, he would leave out the horrible time in his life when he was desperately in love with Rachel "they were together years ago and then they were on a break and Ross slept with Chloe from the copy place. Rachel found out and dumped him and we were all in Monica's bedroom at the time so we all had to eat wax while they argued..."

"you ate wax?" Alex was slightly concerned for her partner's health after eating wax

"Alex don't interrupt me, I'm on a roll"

"okay sorry, but let's go back to the wax eating later" Alex was finding this whole thing very difficult to follow, but she paid extra special attention this time

"so they split up and then Ross got with Emily and said Rachel's name at the alter..."

"he said Rachel's name while he was getting married to Emily?"

"yes, so Emily and Ross split up and then while addressing all the invitations for Monica and Chandler's wedding Rachel and Ross had sex and Rachel got pregnant with Emma and then just before I moved to LA they got together again"

"wow, that's some story" Alex prayed that her and Joey's relationship would never become that complicated, but expected that it would do

"I know and that's the quick version of it" Joey hoped that his and Alex's relationship would never become that complicated, but again, expected that it would do

"Joey" Monica called out very loudly but very sweetly "its time for dinner"

"okay Mon, we're coming" Joey called equally as loudly but no where near as sweetly, he thought that maybe Alex had understood all that he had told her, but he wasn't completely sure, he hoped he hadn't put her off wanting to join the gang

"Erica, Jack" Monica called to the twins "dinner time come on"

"Those twins are so cute" Alex rubbed her tummy, not a bit phased by what he had told her about Rachel and Ross's relationship, except maybe the wax eating "I hope we have more one day"

"Yeah me too" Joey thought for a minute about what to do next, his plans for the week included two more decisions for Alex to make. However, if she said no to the first decision then there really was no second decision. He hadn't yet decided when the first question was going to be 'popped', he hadn't decided weather he wanted to do it in front of all of his friends, his best friend or simply just the three of them, Alex, Joey and the bump. Then he decided he was going to do it there and then, it felt right and so he just asked her "Alex" he took a deep breath, one of them where you fill your lungs all the way up and hold the air in for as long as possible to give you a few more seconds to prepare "Alexis Garrett..."

"Joey, don't call me Alexis" Alex was silently fuming, he knew that she hated her name, she had always wondered what was wrong with the name Alexandra

"Sorry" it was too late, he'd have to do the big breath thingy again or else he wouldn't have the air for the question, this time, however, he dropped down onto one knee "Alex Garrett, will you marry me?"

"Joseph Tribbianni" Alex smiled as Joey winced as he didn't like the use of his full name "of course I will."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

It takes a special someone to survive a night in the Bing household. Seeing as Monica had trained Erica and Jack to clean up and be as OCD as her. Alex wasn't allowed to put anything down without either Erica giving her a coaster, Jack using the really teeny tiny hoover thingy that was the shape of an animal just in case there were tiny crumbs that were invisible to the naked eye or Monica checking that Erica was doing her job of being in charge of the coasters and Jack was doing his job of being in charge of the teeny tiny hoover thingy. It had taken Joey all of thirty seconds before he flung himself down the stairs to tell them that his first question of the trip was a success. It took Monica even less time to comment, really loudly to Chandler that Alex's ring was bigger than hers. Erica asked Alex a lot of questions about her uncle Joey and announced, quite loudly, to Alex that Emma wouldn't like it that someone else was closer to 'uncle Joey' than she was. Jack cracked lots of jokes that weren't really funny and then laughed really loudly at himself, just like his dad.

By the time Alex and Joey were curled up in bed, sleeping was the only thing on Alex's mind. She dearly wanted to consummate their engagement but didn't think she was in any fit state to do so.

"I should have arranged to stay at Rachel and Ross's" Joey apologized he was really annoyed at the way Monica had treated her and shouted at the kids in front of her "or Phoebe and Mike's, anywhere would've been better than here"

"no, it's okay" Alex said through gritted teeth, silently hating the Bing experience, but loving Monica, Chandler and the twins "they're a lovely family, just a little bit tough to live with" Alex immediately regretted that comment when she saw the look on Joey's face "oh, Joey, I'm sorry, I know they're your friends"

"it's okay" Joey sympathized, understanding completely, but hoping she wouldn't feel this way "please give them another chance"

"of course" Alex nodded, slightly regretting what she had just said but wanting to do her best to give them a try "of course I'll give them another chance, hey Joey, I was wondering something, can we move away from LA? I don't really want our baby growing up around that kind of atmosphere, if it's a girl she'll end up like Paris Hilton and if it's a boy he'll end up like, well, you when you were younger" Alex hoped that Joey wouldn't take offense to what she had just said

"you know what" Joey laughed "I was going to ask if you wanted to move out here, you'll have all the support of the girls, Rachel and Phoebe have both been pregnant in the past and Monica has had newborns"

"Joey" Alex looked into her fiancees eyes and smiled "I was going to suggest that, seeing as my parents hate me and my sister has had her children taken away from her. We should have a look at buying that house as we came into the estate, it's beautiful"

"I was going to suggest the same thing. How about tomorrow we arrange a viewing" Joey was so surprised, but happy that finally him and Alex were obviously on the same wavelength

"How about we never go back to LA" Alex knew this wasn't going to be easy for Joey, his sister, nephew and house was there "except to tie up loose ends"

"sounds good" Joey laughed, still not really believing that he and Alex had both wanted the same thing "so we're going to live here with the rest of the gang!"

By the time Monica had cleaned the living and dining room to her standard it was about 11pm and Chandler had fallen asleep on the couch. Monica gently shook his shoulder to wake him and then kissed him as he woke up. Chandler loved this little ritual that they had done every day since the twins had been born and they moved into their beautiful house. Monica grabbed hold of Chandler's hand and seductively lead him up to bed, she opened Erica's door and looked in on her sleeping face. Erica was really starting to look like Erica, her birth mother who had been really young when she had had her and let Monica and Chandler adopt her twins, however Monica thought that she was the most beautiful thing ever, sometimes Monica had to remind herself that they were adopted and that she hadn't given birth to them. Chandler looked in on his son, who didn't really look like anyone they knew. Chandler thought that his son was handsome, the most handsome thing ever created. They then swapped rooms and Monica looked at Jack and Chandler looked at Erica. This was another part of their night time ritual. They then went into their bedroom and Monica sat down on the very large four poster bed that Chandler always hit his head on when they were having sex.

"I hope Jack had a good day today" Monica commented as she undressed ready for bed, she was always so worried that Jack would miss out seeing as he was the only boy in a whole group of girls

"He was sound asleep" Chandler was already undressed and in bed, since falling in love with one of his best friends he had mastered the fully undress and jump in bed in thirty seconds thing. "he played with Ben a lot today"

"I know" Monica smiled at the thought of Jack and Ben playing together because Monica loved Ben, Emma and Charlotte almost as much as she loved Jack and Erica "but I kinda feel bad that he's the only young boy and all the others are girls. Phoebe should have had a boy"

"yeah, but can you really see a little boy being called Cougar like she wanted to name baby girl Chandler initially"

"true" Monica rubbed her belly and thought about the other names that Phoebe had considered each time she had been pregnant including Spike and Zep "I hope this is a boy, for Jack to play with one day"

"yeah" Chandler got so excited that if he'd have been at work the squeaking of the chair would've been louder than ever "scan time next week"

"I know, shall we find out what we're having?" Monica had temporally forgotten about the up coming scan, but she was so excited about it

"I would love that"

"you know I don't mind what it is really," Monica assured him "it'd just be nice for Jack"

"I know, me too"


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

Late that night, Alex went into labour, it was very quick and baby Lola-Marie Tribbianni was born on the cream carpet of Monica's beautiful guest room. Monica and Chandler witnessed the birth of Lola-Marie, which Monica and Chandler were very pleased about and honored to do, Monica wasn't too pleased about there being a large blood stain on her recently new carpet.

"Alex?" Joey was so emotional he was crying "thank you for giving me this wonderful gift"

"hey, you're okay, I absolutely loved giving you this gift, it was a bit painful, but worth it for you and Lola-Marie" Alex kissed Joey on the lips, she thought that she was in love with him as she could've been, until now "just don't go back to your old ways, and don't leave me to look after her all the time."

Just then the doorbell went, it was a slightly different tune to the one that had played when Emma and popped by a few days ago.

"I'll get it" Jack called out before running to the door, he wasn't completely sure what had gone on in the night, but he remembered Alex screaming and crying and being told to go back to bed and he had seen Alex with a baby "hey Emma" he exclaimed excitedly "Uncle Joey's friend has had a baby"

Before Chandler could stop her Emma had ran back through the gate and to her front door. "mommy, mommy, daddy, daddy" she called loudly.

Rachel thought that something was really wrong and rushed down the stairs one shoe on and one shoe off "Emma, what's wrong sweetie" Rachel was really worried now "are you okay?"

"Yes mummy" Emma responded excitedly "Uncle Joey's friend has got a baby now"

Ross and Rachel looked at each other and ran round to Monica's. The front door was still open and so they let themselves in and ran up to Joey and Alex's room. The image that greeted them was one that they never thought they'd see. Alex was laying on the bed in Monica and Chandler's beautiful guest room asleep and Joey was standing by the bed looking deep into the blue eyes of his beautiful daughter. On the floor was a large blood stain, obviously caused by the birth of the baby, Rachel thought it was weird that Monica wasn't on her hands and knees cleaning up the carpet that had only been down for a few months. Someone had obviously taken the time to call Phoebe and Mike too because they arrived at the door just a few minutes later, they too were surprised that Joey had literally over night became the doting dad and that Monica wasn't on her hands and knees cleaning up the blood.

"Hey guys" Joey smiled, he looked tired, but so happy and so in love with the tiny creation that was laying in his arms "I'm glad you're all here"

Alex was obviously woken by all the people in the room and looked up at Joey "hey sweetie" Alex looked round to see all the adults. The children had become a little bored and gone to play in Erica's room. Phoebe had baby Daisy in her hands and Ross had baby Charlotte in his. "Hey every body"

"well" Joey lifted his baby up so that everyone could see "I would like to introduce you to someone" he looked at Alex who nodded back at him and then, trying really hard to to cry, announced "this is Lola-Marie"

Every one wanted a hold and so Lola was passed around the whole group one by one. When feeding time came along the men excused themselves and the three girls sat in the beautiful guest room while Phoebe, Rachel and Alex fed Daisy, Charlotte and Lola.

"I'll be doing this soon" Monica smiled at Rachel who Monica thought didn't yet know "In just over three months I'll have a baby to breast feed just like everyone else"

"Really?" Rachel shouted so loud that all three of the babies looked up at the noise before each settling back onto where the food was coming from, Phoebe was surprised that Monica hadn't realized that Rachel already knew. "congratulations Monica, how come its taken so long for you to tell us?"

"I didn't really believe it myself until my bump started to emerge." Monica responded "I'm sorry I didn't say anything"

"you okay there Alex?" Rachel rubbed her shoulder, she thought back to when Emma was born, it was all very new and all very scary "how's Lola doing?"

"she's fine, I think" Alex looked up at her new friends and was touched by the way she had just been accepted just like that without any question at all "thank you so much for accepting me into the group"

"hey don't worry about it" Phoebe smiled "I've been in your position, so has Rachel"

"yeah" Rachel agreed "everyone's so inviting, you'll fit right in" Rachel's first night in the City came into her mind, she remembered running in with a wedding dress on and creating a very large scene. Oh how far she had come from then!

"but I just don't know if I have anything in common with any of you" Alex fretted "I don't want us to run out of things to say!"

"hey" Monica assured her truthfully "you love Joey, therefore you're part of our group"

"anyone who loves Joey is our kinda girl" Phoebe agreed, "we can just talk about Joey, men and babies all the time if we have too!"

"yeah, and you're obviously so in love" Rachel responded, the only other time Rachel had seen him like this was when he told her that he was in love with her "it's lovely to see"

"can I just tell you, Rachel?" Alex added, still really grateful and thankful to all her new friends "I think you and Ross are the most unbelievably perfect couple in the world, you two were obviously made for each other."

"Well" Rachel blushed and her heart ached to be with Ross, Alex was right, they were soul mates and right now she missed him, even if he was only downstairs "I do love Ross very much, and Emma and Charlotte are lovely keepers for our marriage, but it's not all been plain sailing"

"Yeah" Alex agreed and then wondered if she had said too much "Joey gave me the quick version of your relationship and I'm telling you, if Joey cheated on me, I would never take him back" again, Alex felt she had spoken out of term, but it didn't seem to worry the other girls

"I know" Rachel agreed trying to keep that painful image that she had spent months trying not to picture of Ross and Chloe having sex in Ross's old apartment out of her mind "I said that for years"

"years and years and years" Monica added hoping that this conversation wouldn't lead to another fall out between her brother and her best friend

"but that was a long time ago and I know he wouldn't do it again, I punished him long enough" Rachel laughed half-heatedly, remembering all the things she had done to punish him and then regretted not forgiving him in the first place, things could have been so different

"yeah" Phoebe smiled silently thanking all of her gods that this conversation wasn't going to cause Rachel to fall out with Ross "you really did"

"so" Rachel said changing the subject, even thought it was years ago and a lot of water had passed under the bridge since then the memories of Ross and Chloe was still painful for Rachel to think about "Pheebs, are you gonna have any more?"

"hell yeah" Phoebe smiled, in the same way she had done just after Summer had been born "give it nine months, I'll be pregnant again"

"I can't believe you have three children all so close" Alex shook her head and thought that she couldn't do it that quick herself "don't you feel like a baby making machine?"

"No" Phoebe thought about it, she had never looked at it this way before, she had just thought that making the babies was really fun and then, she loved being pregnant and having a new baby "Mike never makes me feel like a baby making machine, plus he's so thoughtful when I'm pregnant, even more than when I'm not"

"if that's possible" Rachel agreed, thinking about all the men that they had ended up with "we're all so lucky with our men"

"I just hope our girls end up with men as nice as ours" Monica added, she was sure they would "and I hope Jack and Ben are as nice as their fathers."

"Do you think you'll have anymore, Rach?" Pheebs picked Daisy up from her breast and started patting her back

"Yes" Rachel smiled, truth was she desperately wanted one now, she wanted Ross to take her in his arms, make love to her and make her pregnant "I don't want such a big gap this time though, five years is too much"

"Do you think?" Monica added, starting to worry about the age gap that existed between Jack and Erica and the new baby "there will be nearly five years between the twins and this one."

"yeah it's okay because the twins have each other" Rachel corrected herself and cursed herself silently for not thinking about what she was saying before actually saying it "and Emma has the twins but I sometimes feel sorry for Ben"

"doesn't he have his friends round all the time?" Monica reminded her still worrying about the age gap though "you always seem to have more than one teenage boy in your house"

"Yeah" Rachel agreed "that's true, in fact James is over there now with him"

"What's it like having a step son?" Alex asked, she wasn't sure about weather she would be comfortable with going out with someone who already had a child,

"it's okay, because I've known Ben since he was born, he still calls me Rachel, he doesn't call me mom" Rachel thought about her step son and how much she loved him, although it was no where near as much as she loved Emma or Charlotte "sometimes he refers to me as his mom but not always, I think he's still getting over Carol and Susan's deaths, poor boy. I just thank god that he wasn't in that car."

"Carol and Susan are?" Alex added, if she had thought about it, it wouldn't have taken much working out, but once again, Alex had stepped in at the wrong moment without thinking first

"Oh, they were Ben's other moms" Rachel saw Alex's puzzled face "they were lesbians"

"oh yes, Joey said" Alex didn't really want to have this conversation today, it was weird, and not suitable "we can have this conversation another day though"

"Right" Phoebe put her breast away and stood up, suddenly realizing the time "we've gotta go look at this house"

"you can leave the girls here" Monica added, she adored Phoebe's girls and loved it when they came to play, which wasn't too often because of the distance they were away "they probably wont want to leave anyway"

"thanks" Phoebe smiled, grateful to her friend for being there for her girls just as much as they had been there for her


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

"Come on Mike" Phoebe practically flew through the living room grabbing him as they went through "we've gotta go look at that house across the road"

"oh yeah" Mike remembered "what about the kids?"

"Monica said they could stay here" Phoebe paused for a minute "come on"

Monica came down the stairs holding baby Daisy, she was followed by Rachel and Alex with their babies. Rachel put Charlotte on the floor to play with all the toys around her.

"Alex?" Joey asked, really really excited now and wanting to be with Lola as much as possible "can I hold Lola?"

"Sure darling" Alex gently handed her over to him, she knew that Joey would look after her the best he could, and there were four other very experienced parents there to help him if he needed them too "right well I hope you don't think I'm rude" Alex yawned "but I'm going to have a sleep, wake me up if Lola-Marie needs me"

Rachel collapsed down onto the sofa, next to her husband and snuggled in under his arm. "So, Joey, hows fatherhood treating you?"

"yeah not too bad" Joey couldn't force himself to look away from Lola's beautiful sleeping face "I'm so glad I changed and fell in love with Alex, I'm so lad that I'm not the same person who left for LA all those years ago. I'm so glad I've grown up, if I hadn't have done that, Lola wouldn't be here!"

"So" Monica looked at Rachel and Ross and prayed that she wasn't talking out of term, even though deep down she knew she wasn't "you're next"

"we have a nine month old baby" Ross corrected her and then immediately regretted it "we started the baby boom"

"Don't you want another one soon?" Rachel asked him thinking that maybe her plan had a little bump in the road "like in six months or so?"

"yeah, maybe, but not right away, lets let Charlotte be the baby of the family for a few months" Ross sensed straight away that he had said the wrong thing and upset Rachel,

"Anyway" Monica interrupted, sensing the same as Ross "we're going to have a scan next week, we'll find out whether we've got a boy or a girl"

"Excellent" Joey smiled at them for a nano second, which was the longest he had looked away from Lola since Alex had gone to bed "what would you like?"

"A boy" Monica responded almost too quickly and then thought of a valid reason "seeing as there's so many girls"

"I'm not too bothered" Chandler responded as truthfully as Chandler Bing can

"So" Joey changed the subject sensing that Chandler wasn't a big fan of the conversation that was going on "Charlotte's cute isn't she Ross? She looks like you!"

"Yeah they're both so different" Ross replied picturing his girls faces in his mind "Emma's like Rachel and Charlotte's like me"

"They're both beautiful though" Rachel added not letting either of her girls be put down "all of our children are beautiful"

"Mommy, mommy" Liberty Hannigan came running into the room "where's my mommy?"

"she's gone to look at something with Daddy" Rachel smiled at her, she had always thought that Libby was stunning "are you okay Libby?"

"yes" Libby responded "but Summer's upset"

"Okay" Rachel got up and followed Summer out of the room, as she walked out Ross watched her go and thought about how sexy she was "let's go and see if she's okay"

"Right now she's gone" Ross started to be extremely honest with his friends "please try not to make Rachel broody again, I don't want another one right now"

"Ross, come on" Monica told him sternly, she wasn't too happy with her brother right now, "it's not just you're decision, its Rachel's too, don't you think that now Charlotte's getting a little bit older, I'm pregnant and Phoebe and Alex have tiny babies that Rachel might want another one"

"I don't though" Ross told her selfishly "not yet anyway, Charlotte is the baby and I'd like her to remain that way for a little while."

"I think you need to talk to Rachel" Alex added as she came down the stairs butting into the conversation, but not in a rude way "she wants another one soon, she already told us"

"Okay" Ross agreed reluctantly "I'll talk to her tonight"

"Hey baby" Joey said to Alex, really pleased that he could see her and be with her again "couldn't you sleep?"

"I did, but not for long, I wanted to be with you and Lola" Alex responded as she gently sat herself down on the couch causing Joey to put his arm around her "I'm feeling okay though, is Lola okay"

"Yeah," Joey responded lovingly "she's having some daddy time"

"Can she have some mummy time?" Alex asked longing to hold her daughter, she was missing her, even if she was just being held by her dad

"Of course here you go" Joey responded and gently gave Lola a kiss and handed her over "I love you Lola-Marie Tribbianni"

"Rach" Ross called up to where the kids were playing, he couldn't wait anymore, he had to talk to her now "can we go home for a minute, I would like to talk to you about something important"

"sure" Rachel was obviously worried about it "Monica, can I leave Emma and Charlotte here?"

"Sure, whatever you want" Monica smiled, she loved it when Emma and Charlotte came to play

Rachel realized that Ross wasn't happy. She stormed out of the door, she could sense an argument brewing and didn't really want to have one. Ross followed and shut the door behind him. He really didn't want an argument either but could sense it too.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

Rachel stormed into her house and slammed the door in Ross' face. He was taken aback, he had some idea of what was wrong with Rachel, but wasn't a hundred per cent sure.

"Ross, I don't want to argue with you" Rachel stated truthfully as tears were welling up in her eyes "so just say what you want to say and then we can discuss it rather than shout about it."

"I'm not going to argue with you" Ross assured her, but still prepared himself for an argument "I just want to talk about it too"

"okay, well you go first then" Rachel ordered him, silently fuming and hoping that she would win this argument, she thought that maybe she was running out of time, she had wanted children with Ross ever since she fell in love with him when Chandler let it slip that Ross was in love with Rachel.

"well obviously this conversation is about having more children, so do you want more children then Rach?" Ross was genuinely prepared to listen to her, he just hoped that her reasoning was relevant

"yes," Rachel started to get upset, she tried not to cry but the tears still fell "I always told you I wanted three kids, even before Emma was born, remember on my thirtieth birthday when I was with Tag, and I don't want to wait much longer, I'm 36 now, I don't want to be 60 when my child goes to high school"

"okay so when do you want to have this child?" Ross was slightly annoyed that her reasoning was relevant and had actually started to change his mind, true he wanted to have another child with Rachel but was now really the time to bring another human being into the world?

"any time from now would be good" Rachel had now started to plead with her husband, which she didn't really enjoy doing and Ross didn't enjoy watching "we could start trying now, like, right now"

Ross looked down at the couch where eighteen months earlier Charlotte had been conceived and then looked back at Rachel face, the tears had started to dry and she looked so beautiful, a grin grew on his face that he couldn't hide, even though he was still unsure about the situation "you slip into something more comfortable and I'll go and ask Monica to have the girls all afternoon."

When Ross came back from Monica's Rachel was sitting on the couch wearing a very beautiful lacy pink nightie and strappy stilettos, it wasn't a new nightie that Rachel was wearing, it was the one that Ross had brought her for valentines day that year and one of his favorites. He just stared at her and was taken back to when he first saw her in the coffee house by their old apartments in that beautiful wedding dress from where she'd left Barry at the altar, then he thought about when they had first started going out after watching the old prom video, how he had wanted to take Rachel to the prom and then at last minute Rachel's date Chip Matthews had turned up. He went through the time they had first slept together in the museum where he used to work and then got caught by a group of school children the next morning and finally he thought about when he had brought her that nightie, he had seen it in Bloomingdale's lingerie department and thought Rachel would look beautiful in it

"Wow" he just about managed to say as his reproductive system kicked in and he started to feel really attracted to Rachel, "you look amazing"

"So" Rachel winked at him seductively and put her left leg across her right thigh showing him even more of her left leg "are you gonna come here?"

"wow, Rachel, two kids has not taken away the fact that you are so sexy" Ross could now feel a lot of movement in his pants, with any other lady in any other relationship that he had, including his two other wives Carol and Emily he would have felt a little bit self conscious but with Rachel he was completely comfortable in this situation "can I come give you a kiss?"

"Ross, honey, you can come over here and do whatever you want to me, I don't mind, in fact, I want you too"

"Uncle Joey" Emma climbed onto the large chair that Joey was sitting on, then climbed onto his lap and snuggled under the arm that wasn't around Alex and Lola "where's mommy and daddy"

"Erm" Joey didn't know quite what to say, he wasn't sure what they were doing but everybody had some idea "they're at home"

"They're having some mommy and daddy time" Monica added winking at Joey who was really pleased that she had helped him out "you're going to stay here for this afternoon"

"okay" Emma seemed okay with that "what about Charlotte?"

"she's staying here too" Joey added giving her a big cuddle and a kiss on the cheek "with us"


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"Oh, hey man" Chandler opened his front door to see Ross standing in front of him on the doorstep, Ross smiled back at Chandler the cheeky grin that he could never ever get off his face for about three hours after sleeping with his wife. It was obvious to Chandler what had happened between Ross and Rachel by the state of his hair as well as the grin "so you and Rachel made up then"

"Yes" Ross smiled, the grin getting bigger and bigger as he thought about what had happened, how it wasn't just the one couch that was now 'tainted' by their love making, and the living room and their bedroom wasn't the only rooms that right at this minute smelt of sex "we've had a lovely afternoon"

"You did it on the couch again didn't you?" Chandler's grin was getting bigger and bigger by the second as well, he was thinking about him and Monica and how they had done it in every room in the house except the kids rooms "I'm never sitting on that couch again"

"how do you know we had sex?" Ross said, letting even more of the cat out of the bag, in fact the cat had scarpered from the bag and run across the street

"you obviously didn't look at yourself in the mirror before you came over" Chandler shook so much, trying to conceal the laughter but failing miserably, if he'd have been in his office the squeaking of the chair would have been so that only dogs could hear "its your hair, man, you have a bed, or couch, head"

"oh no" Ross ran his fingers through his hair, feeling very embarrassed by the whole thing "I've just come to collect the girls, have they been okay?"

"they've been fine," Chandler was used to this conversation as Emma was always really good and certainly respected Monica and Chandler "actually Emma asked Monica if she could stay over"

"but you've got Joey, Alex and Lola staying" Ross was grateful to Chandler and Monica for offering to have his beautiful eldest daughter over night "is there enough space?"

"yeah, Emma can bunk down in Erica's room on the floor like usual"

"okay man, if you're sure, that's fine, I'll just come in and see her first" Ross was always very excited about seeing Emma, even just after Ross had done a days work and Emma had spent the day at school. Ross hated the nights when he had to step in to cover an evening class, which wasn't that often, but any evening spent away from his wife and children was terrible. On the nights like that, he would always sneak into Emma's room and whisper a story out of her dinosaur story book. How he loved his family, they were the reason he worked the hours he did and why he had spent so long at university getting his PhD.

"Emma" Chandler called up the stairs that were in the corner of the front room "daddy's here"

Ross walked over to Charlotte who was playing on the floor and scooped her up into his arms, as he did this she giggled and held tightly onto him, Ross's love for his daughter and Charlotte's love for her dad was highly apparent

"Daddy!" Emma exclaimed as she ran over to Ross and held him tight, the love between those two was as apparent as the love between Ross and Charlotte "have you had some good mommy and daddy time?"

"Sure" Ross said hoping that no one had said any more than that "did you enjoy spending some time here with Erica and Jack?"

"Yes, daddy" Emma looked at him seriously "Libby and Summer were playing too"

"oh, yes of course, I mustn't for get Libby and Summer, so you've had a good time then?" Ross gave Emma another big hug that almost turned into a squeeze "Uncle Chandler told me that you would like to stay here and sleep in Erica's room tonight, is that right?"

"Yes please daddy" Emma responded with those eyes again that Ross found very difficult to ignore "but only if its okay with you and mommy"

"Okay" Ross decided on this occasion to give in to Emma and let her have what she wanted "well I'll check with mommy and see what she says, but it shouldn't be a problem"

"yes!" Emma smiled and gave Ross a big kiss "go and ask mommy now please"

"Okay" Ross kissed her back and gave her a third hug "I'm just gonna talk to uncle Joey okay"

"Okay, daddy, I'm going to go and play with Erica and Libby again"

"Hey, you play nicely Emma" Ross warned her, even though he didn't need to

"I will do" Emma turned to walk away "daddy"

"Yes princess"

"I love you"

"I love you too darling" Ross always started crying when Emma told him that she loved him she did it so many times a day that Ross felt he should've brought shares in the company that made the tissues that he was using

"oh, how sweet is she?" Alex looked at Emma as she walked out of the room "I hope Lola is as sweet as her"

"Yeah," Ross laughed Emma was very sweet but it all of that wasn't just to be lovely to her parents, she also saw it as a way of getting what she wanted. Ben, Emma and Charlotte were very spoilt, but they knew it and so did Ross and Rachel, their view was that if they could treat their children they should, as long as they didn't turn into spoilt brats "she knows how to work me and Rachel, she normally is very good though"

"She loves me to bits" Joey commented smugly "I don't know why she seems to flock towards me"

"it's because you spent so much time with her when she was tiny and she built up a bond with you" Ross answered, he was still a little jealous about the situation and that Ross and Rachel couldn't have got their act together to be a couple when Emma was tiny "anyway, Alex, how are you?"

"oh, fine thank you, Ross" Alex responded, still obviously besotted with her daughter "I bet it wont be long until she's the same age as your Charlotte"

"yeah" Ross kissed his youngest little girl who giggled sweetly "it goes so quickly"

"Hey" Joey interrupted, he'd obviously been thinking of the lack of time they had had between arriving in New York and Lola being born, Joey had promised Alex a trip to New York to get all they needed "I just thought, we don't have a crib for Lola-Marie tonight, can we borrow Charlotte's?"

"Sure" Ross answered, I'll get Rachel to bring it over when she comes to say goodnight to Emma"

"oh, what's Rachel doing Monday?" Alex butted into the conversation, she had obviously thought about what Joey had said and was worrying too "I need baby stuff, I was wondering if we could go shopping, I have nothing"

"I'm sure she'd love that" Ross smiled, shopping was what Rachel did best "after all it is shopping, she'll have to drop Emma off at school first though, hey, we'll put the tandem attachment on the back of Charlotte's stroller and then you wont have to carry Lola around all day"

"Hey baby" Joey interrupted, slightly jealous about the fact that he wasn't going to get to go shopping for baby stuff "are you going to manage shopping with a two day old baby"

"sure" Alex laughed, she knew that Joey was jealous but there were things that needed to be done "you can go back to LA and start sorting things out!"

"Hey, I'm going away with work tomorrow evening so if you want you can stay at ours and keep Rachel company, everyone will be hanging out there anyway, probably"

"Okay" Alex smiled, she was grateful for all that Monica and Chandler had done for her but she felt suffocated in that house with Monica watching her every move and always being three seconds behind her just in case of any spillages or crumbies "thanks Ross that will be brilliant."

"that's okay" Ross rubbed Alex on the shoulder, hoping that she would become a regular member of the group "Rachel will bring Emma's stuff over with Charlotte's crib soon"

"Knock, knock" Rachel smiled as she let herself into Monica and Chandler's house, which was open "hey Mon!"

"Hey Rach" Monica smiled, slightly annoyed that Alex was moving into their spare room instead of staying where they were but she tried to conceal her annoyance "Emma" she called up the stairs "mommy's here"

"hey Alex" Rachel turned to her, she was still in the same place Rachel had seen her all those hours ago staring at her beautiful daughter "Ross told me about you staying at ours tomorrow evening but I was just wondering why don't you just stay at ours tonight as well otherwise we've gotta move the crib twice and that's a silly idea" Rachel's idea was the best way, of course, but it just made Monica even more angry with the whole situation

"oh thank you Rachel" Alex smiled, completely oblivious to Monica's upset "that's a good idea, did Ross ask you about shopping on Monday?"

"Yeah that's fine, do you want to come over now then" Rachel asked her "I'll take Lola if you like and you can bring your stuff"

"Okay thanks Rach" Alex turned to Monica, it was the first time Monica had even been consulted on the new arrangements "you don't mind do you?"

"No that's fine, it makes sense" Monica was truthful, but still really annoyed "I'll help you move the stuff over"

"I'll just call Emma" Rachel went over to the stairs, there was no way that she could leave the house without saying goodnight to her eldest daughter "Emma, Mommy wants to say goodnight!"

"Coming" came Emma's little voice down the stairs "mommy!" Emma ran over to Rachel who had already bent down and opened her arms to her eldest daughter as they embraced Emma let a tear out of her eye "I really, really, really love you mommy!"

"Oh Emma" Rachel could feel herself start crying too "I love you too darling, I love you, Charlotte and Daddy more than anything else in the world, never forget that!"

"I won't mommy!"

"Right, now daddy tells me that you want to sleep here in Erica's bedroom is that right?" Rachel smiled at Emma and Emma knew straight away that she was allowed to stay the night, "you give me a kiss" Rachel kissed Emma on the lips "and you be a good girl for Uncle Chandler and Auntie Monica"

"I will do mommy" Emma smiled at Rachel and gave her another kiss "night night!"

Rachel sat down on the couch and watched her eldest climb up the stairs to play with her best friend for the rest of the day. Rachel knew that she wouldn't see Emma again until tomorrow morning and even though Emma had been staying at Monica and Chandler's over night since she was born Rachel still had to prepare for the night without her. It was never easy for Rachel to be away from her daughter, Ross wasn't so bad, he had been used to it from not being with Ben every night for Ben's first twelve years

"Rachel are you okay" Alex seemed concerned about her "you're upset"

"yeah," Rachel laughed, trying to conceal her motherly worry for her daughter "don't worry about me, this happens once a month at least!"

"wow, really" Alex shook her head, "you're such a wonderful mother"

"thank you Alex" Rachel was genuinely touched by this comment, she lent forward and gave Alex a hug "I'm sure you'll be a wonderful mother too!"

"You, Ross, Ben, Emma and Charlotte are the most amazing family ever, you and Ross are so meant to be together, you must be soul mates."

"Thank you Alex" Rachel was almost in tears now "actually, we're trying for another baby!"

Phoebe, Alex and Monica screamed in delight so loud that it made the guys jump.

"is that what you've been doing all afternoon?" Phoebe asked curiously and cheekily "making babies?"

"Yes" Rachel blushed but couldn't contain her happiness "we've been having sex on the leather couch again, so I wouldn't sit there for a few weeks"

"Again?" Alex gasped starting to understand exactly why Rachel and Ross were made for each other "what do you mean again?"

"well" Rachel confessed, giggling again "Charlotte was actually conceived on the leather couch"

"wow," Alex changed the subject swiftly not wanting to dwell on the fact that a beautiful baby was conceived on a couch in a dirty manner "can you take Lola and we'll come over soon"

"I've made up the spare room for you with a crib and some of Charlotte's old clothes" Rachel really wanted to make Joey and Alex feel at home and at ease in their house

"thank you, see you soon!"


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Today it was Rachel and Ross' turn to be the host and the whole gang was there. Charlotte decided that this would be a good day to start crawling so Rachel added stair gates to her ever growing shopping list as she had sold her old ones on eBay way before she had fallen pregnant with Charlotte for a fraction of the price she paid for them in the first place. Rachel looked down at her shopping list and wondered weather it would be better to take the car rather than carry everything home on the stroller and the train. Rachel decided to ask everyone else what they wanted to do

"Pheebs, Mon, are you coming shopping with me and Alex tomorrow?" Rachel asked, hoping that they would both say yes and it could be like a bonding session "I was gonna go into the city"

"yeah sure" Phoebe answered, they hadn't gone shopping for ages and she really hoped that Monica would be able to join them "I don't see why not"

"can't tomorrow" Monica responded, a little bit annoyed that she was the only one missing out "we've got the scan"

"oh yeah" Rachel remembered, she silently cursed herself for forgetting and arranging something different on a day that, apart from her wedding day, was one of the most important days of her best friends life "you have to text me to let me know whether it's a boy or a girl"

"oh, have you chosen names yet?" Phoebe asked excited and really interested in what Monica had to say "because we had ours picked out the second we knew I was pregnant"

"well yes actually" Monica smiled, excited that finally after four years, and five new babies, none of them hers, being born she was back in the limelight "would you like to know what they are"

"of course" Alex smiled, she was really starting to feel like part of the group now "tell us"

"well, if it's a boy, it's Daniel" Monica took in a deep breath and looked at Rachel, she hoped that Rachel would allow the next favor that Monica was going to ask her "and if it's a girl, we were wondering if we could call her Ella"

"Why are you asking me?" Rachel looked genuinely puzzled, she realized that Ella and Emma sounded very similar, but apart from that there was no reason for Monica asking her permission to use the name Ella

"Well, its very similar to Emma, and we didn't want you to be annoyed for taking a name similar to yours"

"Monica" Rachel put her arm round her friend, her best friend, the friend that had let her steal the name that Monica had wanted for as long as she could remember and squeezed her tight "I stole Emma from you in the first place didn't I, you can call her Ella if you like, I think it's beautiful"

"I have a feeling it's a boy anyway" Monica smiled, truthfully and stating exactly what she wanted "but thank you"

"so how are we getting there?" Phoebe asked, referring to the shopping trip again "are we gonna take the cars or the train"

"well I was thinking the cars" Rachel answered, then something very important occurred to her that threw her plan out of the window "but Lola doesn't have a car seat!"

"okay" Phoebe thought about it for a second and then realized another flaw in the plan "she doesn't have a stroller either"

"no, we've sorted that one" Rachel answered, she had changed her mind and was now thinking that the train was the way to go "I'm going to attach the tandem on the back of mine and we'll put Lola in there, I always put it on for shopping any way, we'll go to a stroller shop to begin with and then I can use the bottom seat for the shopping."

"you've done this before haven't you?" Alex laughed grateful to Rachel for sorting things out "I'm happy to take the train if you are"

"Excellent" Rachel smiled. She looked at Phoebe for her approval, who was smiling and nodding "that's agreed then"

"have you gotta get back by any time to collect Emma from school?" Phoebe asked, remembering that as Libby and Summer were in day care and Mike could pick them up she had all day

"it's okay" Monica chipped in, realizing that Rachel would probably have asked anyway "I can collect her when I pick up the twins"

"are you sure Mon?" Rachel smiled, knowing that Monica would never worry about having Emma "I could just book her into after school club if it's going to be a problem"

"no it's fine," Monica insisted, she was much happier that Emma was going to play with her friends rather than some children she didn't like "there's no point you spending money when we're going to be here"

"okay well thank you Monica" Rachel was very pleased with this outcome "I'll call her down and tell her now"

"Emma" Ross called up the stairs to his daughter "come down here please"

A few seconds later Emma's little feet came pounding down the stairs, she was upset and had been crying. Rachel and Ross never knew when Emma had been crying because she always did it so quietly and always wanted to try and sort things out by herself. This time, however, she had clearly failed in the trying to sort it out herself part.

"Emma!" Ross gave her a cuddle and shot a puzzled look at Rachel "what's wrong?"

"Its Ben" Emma sobbed, almost uncontrollably "he said that you and mommy didn't want me, that I was an accident"

"when did he say this" Ross asked clearly very angry with his son "and why did he tell you this?"

"just now" Emma answered through sobs and gasps for breath "daddy please don't be cross with me"

"Emma" Ross kissed her forehead, and softened his voice "I'm not cross with you, I'm cross with Ben"

"Emma come here darling, have a cuddle with mommy" Rachel turned to Ross, clearly angry at the whole situation "can you sort him out please?"

"BEN!" Ross called up the stairs in his sternest voice ever, it was a lot sterner than his father voice "GET HERE NOW!"

Ben came down the stairs like a stroppy teenager, stomping his sneakers on the stairs that Ross had almost fallen down just a few days before. Ross excused himself and Ben from the situation and took him into the kitchen. It took him a while to muster up the courage to talk to him because he was so angry and thought that if he wasn't careful he may hit out at his son which is the last thing he wanted, and it wouldn't do any good anyway.

"Why did you say that to your sister?" Ross asked calmly but firmly, making sure that Ben knew exactly how Ross was feeling "what did she do to you for you to say those horrible things and where did you get that idea anyway?"

"I heard mom and mom talking about it a while ago and they told me" Ben said like he didn't really care that he had hurt his sister's feelings, which, if he was honest he didn't "Emma was annoying me so I told her"

"Ben..." Ross began but was interrupted

"I don't see the problem anyway, it's true so Emma would've have to have found out anyway one day"

"Ben, you do not say things like that to a five year old" Ross shook his head, clearly unable to grasp that Ben could be so cruel to someone he was supposed to love and look out for "you don't say things like that to a ten year old she's far too young to even start thinking about things like that, all she needs to know is that me and Rachel love her, and me and Rachel love you and Charlotte too"

"RACHEL DOESN'T LOVE ME!" Ben screamed so loud that the whole house could hear and made Ross jump "she loves Emma and Charlotte, that's it and that's all she's ever going to love, she doesn't love me at all!"

"Ben, she..."

"to be honest, I don't care" Ben interrupted "and it wouldn't surprise me if Charlotte wasn't an accident too"

"is that what you want Ben? To be the only child in this family to have not been an accident the only child in the family that was planned?"

"well it wouldn't surprise me if I was the only child in this family that was actually planned, seeing as Rachel's such a slut!"

Ross was so ashamed of his son, Ben's voice had raised to the level that the whole neighborhood could probably hear him "do you want to know the truth?" Ross was starting to loose it now "you weren't planned either" Ben was speechless "me and your mom didn't plan you any more than me and Rachel planned Emma, so, Mr. know it all, Charlotte was the only child in this family to be planned"

"So you're telling me, dad, that you didn't want me either, that me and Emma have both been little humps in the road that mean that you have to slow your life down to deal with, I'm going out, I hate you, I hate Rachel and I hate being part of this family, I wish mom and mom were still alive, I want to move back in with them!"

Ben stormed out of the back door through the huge fitted kitchens that you generally only see on commercials for kitchen fitters and slammed the door, making Charlotte cry as well, Mike decided that he should be the one to give Charlotte a cuddle and therefor picked her up.

Rachel held on tight to her sobbing five year old daughter while silently fuming with her step son. Rachel simply didn't understand why or how Ben would even have known about Emma's beginnings let alone feel the need to pass it on to her when she was only five. She had a feeling that Ben's moms, Carol and Susan had something to do with it but no doubt she would be finding out from Ross later anyway

"mommy..." Emma asked through her tears which were still streaming down her face like the roots on a large old tree "do you still love me?"

"of course Emma" Rachel held both of Emma's hands in hers and looked right into her eyes "I love you more than you will ever know, look darling, sit down here!"

Rachel sat Emma on the couch and then sat herself on the coffee table so they were at the same height "does daddy love me?" Emma started sobbing again!

"Of course he does, we all love you" Rachel assured her, every tear that fell from Emma's beautiful blue eyes was making Rachel feel even angrier with Ben "Emma, me and daddy weren't expecting you to come along, you were a little surprise, but we love you so much and we're so glad that you came along and are here with us now, okay, don't worry about Ben, he's probably sad because his mommies had to go to heaven and is feeling very cross with everyone" this was the best way of explaining what had happened in the most truthful way that was suitable for a five year old, albeit a very mature five year old

"does Ben love me?" Emma was starting to calm down a little bit, but Rachel was still cross with Ben

"of course he does, and Charlotte loves you and every body in this room right now loves you very much" Rachel noticed Emma start to smile again looking around at the whole gang "in fact auntie Monica loves you so much that she would like you to go and play with Erica and Jack tomorrow after school, would you like to go?"

"yes please mommy" Emma's smile grew more and more and she looked at Monica "I would love to go and play with Erica and Jack."

"Okay, well go and give Monica a kiss and say thank you"

"thank you auntie Monica"

"that's okay Emma" Monica gave her a hug and held onto her for as long as possible, sometimes Monica forgot just how much she loved Emma "me, Erica and Jack would love to have you come and play with us tomorrow"

"okay" Emma looked back at her mom "can I go and play again now, I feel better!"

"of course" Rachel gave Emma one last hug and sent her off "I love you"

"I love you too" Emma responded.

Ross had stood in the corner and listened to the whole of the conversation between Rachel and Emma. After Emma had gone back up to play Ross noticed that Rachel was about to collapse on the sofa. He saw Joey stand up from where he was sitting in order to let Rachel sit down. Ross ran across the room and sat down next to Rachel just at the right time, she collapsed into his side and sobbed in exactly the same way that Emma had done just a few minutes before. He kissed her forehead and they just sat there for a while thinking about what had been said and what they were going to do. Neither of them had any idea of how to deal with it.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

It took a lot of talking to calm Ben down after what had happened. Rachel was unbelievably cross at him for telling Emma something that she really shouldn't have any idea about at the age of five. Of course Ross shouldn't have said what he said to Ben about him not being planned either but that had been a heat of the moment thing, simple as. Rachel really didn't want to be around Ben and the moment and therefore still planned to go shopping with Phoebe and Alex the next day. She wasn't going to let the actions of a jealous little boy interfere with her plans and her time spent bonding with Alex.

Ross and Rachel didn't have sex that night they just lay in their bed together, but not really together, even though Ross had decided to cancel his trip, they had planned to have sex, of course, but now trying for another child didn't seem like the best of ideas, they felt like they should focus on the children they already had. If Rachel was pregnant then so be it but maybe they should stop trying for a while and instead put all their energy into sorting Ben out and making him feel part of the family.

Monica was shocked by Ben's actions too, it had obviously sent shock waves through the rest of the group, especially Monica and Chandler. Ben wasn't sleeping in his own home with his dad, sisters and step mum like he should have been, he was sleeping in the room that Alex and Joey had just vacated. The sheets had been changed and Monica had attempted to get Alex's blood out of the carpet but failed miserably. The carpet would simply have to be replaced but for the moment Monica was much more interested in getting Ben sorted out and back where he belonged, with his parents and sisters in the house just the other side of the very expensive wooden fence.

For the rest of the day Emma had been really upset about the whole thing and, throughout the day, was randomly going up to different people and asking them if they loved her. Of course they all said yes. Joey and Alex weren't enjoying the tension in the air at all but they were putting up with it. After all, it was better than Monica's. Joey knew it was completely out of character for Ben to lash out at his little sister the way he did and was really concerned for him, Alex on the other hand had just thought he was a spoilt little boy. Joey explained the situation but didn't seem to make a very good job of it. Phoebe and Mike were both absolutely disgusted with Ben. There was no way in Phoebe's mind that Ben should have said what he said and Mike completely agreed with her.

"I've canceled the trip" Ross told Rachel as he got into bed, "and I've taken some time off, so I'll pick the kids up from school tomorrow and they can spend some time together just me and the two of them until you get home"

"Okay" Rachel sighed "that's a good idea"

"right and then on Tuesday I will pick up Ben from school and take him out for the afternoon" Ross rolled over to look into Rachel's eyes "and on Wednesday I would like you to take Ben out, just the two of you"

"Okay" Rachel agreed reluctantly and slightly worried about the whole situation "well I guess it couldn't hurt"

"at the weekend the five of us are going to spend some time with each other okay? We're going away for the weekend"

"Okay, so when have you rescheduled your trip for work to?"

"Next week"

"Right, have you told Monica that she doesn't need to pick Emma up from school?" right now dealing with the things she had to deal with was much better than dealing with the situation that was in front of her. She was really worried about the alone time that Ross had scheduled for her and Ben to take part in. If Ben could loose it with Emma what was he going to do with her. She wasn't best pleased about Ben being in the same house as Emma and Charlotte either

"No, but I'll do it tomorrow, I told Chandler that I would take Jack and Erica to school so I'll tell her when I pick them up." Ross lent over to kiss Rachel as he did every night, she did kiss him back but she was obviously thinking about other things "Rachel I'm sorry" Ross started crying "I'm so angry at Ben for upsetting Emma I can't believe he would say something like that to a five year old, no matter how he was feeling or what she had said to him"

"what did she say to him?"

"I don't know he just told me that she was annoying him" Ross lent forward and gave her another kiss

"I'm going to go and apologise to Alex and Joey for the upset"

"Okay, will you tell Joey that I can take him to the airport now, he doesn't need to get a cab."

Rachel climbed out of bed and ducked so she didn't hit her head on the beautiful carving on the wooden four poster bed that she shared with Ross on a nightly basis. She tiptoed over to the door and put her dressing gown on. As she went past Emma and Charlotte's rooms she gently opened their doors and checked that they were all still okay. As she reached the door of their guest room she held out her hand and knocked on it.

"come in" Alex called "just to warn you I'm breast feeding Lola"

"that's fine" Rachel smiled as she walked in and thought that sometime very soon she would have to stop feeding Charlotte "I just came to apologise for my step son's behaviour this afternoon. I hope he didn't upset you both too much."

"do you know why he said what he said?" Joey asked obviously lost for any reason why it was said "I mean Emma is five years old! You don't say that to a five year old."

"We don't really know" Rachel shrugged she put her hands to her head and rubbed her eyes, it had been a long day "but I do know that I could have done without that for the next few years"

"its okay" Alex smiled at her and rubbed her back "are we still going out tomorrow?"

"yes" Rachel hadn't sounded so sure of anything in the last few hours "we're all set for tomorrow, in fact we can set off earlier because Ross isn't going away till next week now, oh, Joey, he can take you to the airport tomorrow after he's taken the kids to school."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

The next day started in the same way that any Monday morning normally would in the Geller household, except for this large cloud that seemed to be hanging over the house. Just as normal Ben got up and dressed in baggy pants and a t-shirt with a number on the front. Just as normal Rachel got Emma up and dressed into a beautiful pink dress, with black shoes and plaited her long hair all the way down her back. Just as normal, after breakfast Emma, Ben and Ross piled into the car. Just as normal, before they got in Emma gave Rachel a big hug and kiss, Ben said a simple good bye to Rachel and Ross gave Rachel a big hug and a huge kiss.

"I'll see you later" Ross gave his wife one more kiss "have a good time today, I love you!"

"I will do, baby" Rachel rubbed her nose against his "I love you too!"

It didn't take long for Rachel to get herself and Charlotte ready for shopping. She had looked in the attic for her stroller's tandem attachment, found it and cleaned if for Lola to use. While Rachel was sorting herself out for shopping she wasn't worrying about Ben and his situation. She dressed Charlotte in exactly the same clothes as her, jeans and a pink top, picked up Charlotte's bag which included diapers and everything else you need for a nine month old baby and strapped her into her black and white Phil & Ted's designer stroller. Alex came down the stairs all ready with Lola dressed in what was Charlotte's coming home from hospital outfit. Seeing a newborn baby in this pink baby grow with an elephant stitched into the material made Rachel cry.

"Oh, Rachel" Alex didn't quite know what to do "you're crying, is everything okay?" as soon as the words left Alex's mouth she realized that it was the wrong thing to say

"I'm sorry, Alex!" Rachel wiped the tears away from her eyes with her hands. She looked down at her knuckles and realized that she would have to do her make up again seeing as most of it was now either all over her face, in the wrong place or all over her hands. "its just that was Charlotte's coming home from hospital outfit" Rachel sniffed very loudly, she hadn't intended it to be that loud "it reminds me of a simpler time!"

"Oh, I'm sorry" Alex was very sincere with her apology

"Hey, Alex" Rachel shook her head and lent for her make-up "you didn't know, it's okay"

"are you upset about yesterday" again, Alex knew she had said the wrong thing, that was a silly question, of course Rachel was upset

"yes" Rachel nodded repeatedly for a long time "I wanted Emma so much, she was a surprise, but a wonderful surprise"

"I understand" Alex knew exactly how Rachel was feeling "Lola was the same"

"what?" Rachel was surprised by this, she thought that Alex and Joey had planned her "I thought that Lola was planned!"

"Oh no!" Alex corrected her "my whole life had to change when I became pregnant with Lola, I had a promotion at work that I had to turn down, and my parents disowned me for having a baby out of wedlock, but I would do it all again for Lola!"

"you know what, it was exactly the same for me!" Rachel thought about the Louis Vuitton job that she had given up for Ross "but I know if I took that job I would never have Charlotte or Ross and my family is my world!"

"I know exactly what you mean!" Alex started to get upset too "I was going to have to choose between Joey and the new job, if I hadn't have become pregnant I don't know what I would have done, it is probably because of Lola that I'm here right now, having the time of my life with the most amazing people I've ever met!"

"oh my god" Rachel smiled and was very thankful for her new friend "you are so amazingly sweet, you're like an older version of Emma!" Rachel noticed the look on Alex's face "that's a good thing" she added

"yeah" Alex knew what she meant, and was pleased that Rachel was comparing her to her daughter

"are you ready to go?" Rachel asked, wanting to get out of this house for the day as soon as possible "I just need to get away from here"

"is Phoebe going to meet us there?" Alex knew that Phoebe lived in the city and thought that there was no reason for Phoebe to come all the way here to go all the way back again

"yes" Rachel answered "we're going to walk to the train station but it's not a long walk, Phoebe's coming back here later"

Rachel was right, it wasn't a long walk to the train, and it hadn't taken long to get to the city. They met Phoebe and all headed to the stroller shop. They were there for a long time looking at all the different ones, the different colors and what every one came with. In the end Alex picked one exactly the same as what both Rachel and Phoebe owned, it came with a car seat that attached to the stroller so she didn't have to purchase another one of them. Alex chose a red one seeing as Rachel's was black and Phoebe's was a very bright green. They put it all together in the store and it was all ready for Alex to use straight away. By the time they had finished in the stroller and baby store getting everything that Alex needed, from the stroller to a cot and arranging for a good time for it to be delivered to Rachel and Ross's house it was lunch time. They decided to go to Central Perk for lunch as they hadn't been there in years and they wanted to show Alex what it was like in there. It wasn't a long walk to the coffee house but with three strollers and a very narrow pavement it wasn't easy.

When they reached the coffee house the big sofa in the middle was free, and so they parked the strollers around it and sat down. Gunther had to do a double take as to who he was looking at, when he realized it was Rachel he remembered how she had made him feel all those years ago.

"I'll go and order" Phoebe walked up to the counter and ordered their coffees, they would order their food once they had chosen what they were going to have

"So, this is Central Perk?" Alex looked around at the simple coffee house that her husband had so many wonderful memories of

"yeah" Rachel thought again back to the memories of the coffee house, some good, some bad "in fact we used to live above here"

"wow" Alex thought about some of the stories that Joey had told her "I remember now" Alex laughed at how he had told her about the time Ross, Joey and Chandler had jumped sideways across the hall from one apartment to the other trying to conceal Rachel's dad from Rachel's mum at one of her birthday parties "apartments nineteen and twenty"

"Yeah that's the one!"

Phoebe came back over to where they were sitting and sat down on one of the arm chairs. They chatted for a while about where they needed to go, what they needed to buy and old memories of the coffee house. Suddenly Daisy started crying and Phoebe got her out of the stroller to feed her. Rachel picked Charlotte out of her stroller and put her on to her lap. Alex turned to where her stroller had been, realized that it wasn't there any longer and froze. Lola had disappeared. The stroller was no where to be seen and it certainly where it had been ten minutes ago.

"Everything okay Alex?" Phoebe asked really really concerned and then realized that the stroller had gone "where's Lola?"

Alex looked at Phoebe and then at Rachel, she looked back into the space next to her where the stroller had been and screamed loudly, Rachel stood up quickly, put Charlotte on her hip, got her iPhone out of her pocket and dialed 911. Phoebe realized what the problem was, she placed Daisy back into her stroller and took Alex in her arms.

"hello, police please" Rachel had started crying and running her head through their time in the coffee house, wondering if she had seen something significant without realizing. "hello, I would like to report a missing child"

Alex got up and ran out of the coffee house hoping that she had only just left, Phoebe followed her leaving Rachel in the coffee house with Charlotte and Daisy.

"yes her name is Lola-Marie Tribbianni" and she's two days old!" Rachel couldn't believe what was going on, she had to pinch herself to check that she wasn't dreaming. Rachel turned to the door and saw Alex and Phoebe come back empty handed. Rachel couldn't describe the way Alex looked she was obviously very upset that her baby had gone. "Central Perk, okay thank you" Rachel looked up at Alex and Phoebe "the police are on their way" 


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Ross sat outside Ben's high school in his Porsche Cayenne. He had brought the car not long after Emma was born, he always wanted to out do Monica's Porsche 911 that their father had given her as a present and he took the opportunity of being a father to two children as an excuse to purchase the car of his dreams. Ross looked in the mirror and saw Emma sound asleep in her car seat, he hoped that this afternoon was going to go well. For Emma's sake as much as Ben's. He saw Ben come out of the school and see his father in the car. He said goodbye to his mates and got into the car. Ross could tell right away that Ben was not in the right frame of mind for this but he wanted to go through with it for Emma and Rachel.

"Did you have a nice day?" Ben ignored him "how are your mates?"

"dad, this isn't going to work" Ben said rudely "i hate Rachel, she hates me, end of discussion"

"Rachel doesn't hate you," Ross was starting to get upset with Ben again, he was just hoping that Emma wouldn't wake up and hear the conversation "she's always wanted all the best for you"

"I hate Emma and Charlotte too" Ben was getting very cross

"Ben, you take that back" Ross shouted and woke Emma up "how dare you say that about your sisters"

"they're part of Rachel and I hate anything to do with her!"

"you what?" Ross was fuming "Rachel does every thing for you"

"like what?" Ben spat, he knew that his father was right but, being a teenage boy, he pushed and pushed and pushed "she's done nothing for me except make me feel pushed out and excluded from the family"

"who painted your room when she was eight and a half months pregnant, who took you shopping for your school clothes for this year with her money, who drove you to school for the whole of last week?"

Ben was speechless he looked forward towards the school that he had just come out of, but if truth be told he wasn't really looking at the school, he was thinking about his moms, Carol and Susan. They had died about ten months ago and he had gone to live with his dad, he didn't want to live there though, the courts had just put him there because he had no where else to go. No one had bothered to ask Ben where he wanted to live.

"Come on Ben" Ross put his arm round his son's shoulder "let's go and have a nice meal, just you, me and Emma"

"So what was she wearing?" the police officer asked, obviously sympathetic to what was going on

"a pink baby grow with an elephant sewn into it" Rachel told the man, Alex was in no fit state to answer the questions so Rachel was doing it for her "she's got blue eyes, dark brown hair and she's a really tiny baby, she was born two days ago and when she was born she weighed 7lb8oz."

"okay, was anything else stolen?"

"yes, Rachel looked at Alex, sitting on the sofa being cuddled by Phoebe "a red Phil and Teds stroller it was only purchased today."

"okay, and the child's full name?"

"Lola-Marie Tribbianni" Rachel wasn't sure how she was coping so well with this, then she realized, she could do all her crying when she got home, for the moment, she needed to do her best for Alex and Lola

"are you the child's mother"

"no" Rachel shook her head and gestured towards Alex who was still sitting on the couch "that's the baby's mother"

"and what's her name?"

"Alexis Garrett" Rachel started wiping the tears that were now falling down her cheeks away "and the father's name is Joseph Tribbianni, but you should call them Alex and Joey"

Phoebe picked up her cell phone and called Mike, she asked him to stay where he was and look after the eldest two but to let him know that she honestly did not know when or even if her and Daisy would be returning home that night. Phoebe knew that Mike would be able to cope with the girls, he hadn't had the two of them on his own before but he knew it wouldn't be a problem and Phoebe also knew that if it came to it they could all go back to their place to sleep.

"Right" Rachel got Charlotte out of the stroller that she'd been in for ages and put her to her breast for a feed. Alex had started to calm down and thanked Rachel for dealing with the police.

"Right" Rachel turned to look at Alex "the police said that what they've probably done is stolen the stroller without realizing that there was a baby in there so they probably don't want Lola, they just want the stroller"

"is that a good thing?" Alex asked her "what will they do with Lola?"

"the policeman said that normally the thieves take the babies to the hospital."

"okay" Alex suddenly thought about what to do next "oh no, I haven't told Joey"

Alex decided to go for a walk on her own around the block while she was telling Joey that the most important thing in his world had gone missing. This left Rachel and Phoebe on their own. Rachel took this time to phone Ross and ask him how his after school outing had been and to tell him about Lola. Ross told her about Ben's initial outburst but that afterwards it had been okay. This wasn't the complete truth as Ben had ended up screaming at Emma for no reason that Ross could see. There was obviously a major problem with Ben's emotional well being, but Ross hoped and prayed that what he was doing would be the right thing.

"Do you want me to come and pick you up?" Ross asked Rachel on the phone "what's Alex doing tonight"

"I don't know, she's gone to call Joey and then she's going to call the police and see what they say about her coming home"

"Okay, well, Rachel darling, would you like to come home?" Ross hoped she would say yes, he was missing her like mad and wanted to give her a big cuddle "because I can just put Emma in her pajamas and let her sleep in the car"

Rachel looked at Phoebe, who had just received a text from Mike asking her to come home when she could "yes please" Rachel smiled for the first time since Lola had vanished "don't forget to put Charlotte's car seat in."

"I wont," Ross smiled, he knew Rachel wasn't trying to put him down, but instead she was trying to make sure that her babies were safe. "I'll see you later" 


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

The journey from LA to New York on that evening was the longest of Joey's life, he was desperately worried about his daughter being, as far away from them as possible. Every two and a half seconds he looked at his watch, every two and a half seconds seemed like two and a half hours to Joey, he told Alex that he was getting the first flight home to be with her and look for their child and that was exactly what he was doing, he just wished the first flight hadn't been quicker. Alex didn't want to come home that night, she wanted to sleep on Phoebe and Mike's floor, she knew it wouldn't be as comfortable as Ross and Rachel's guest room but at least it would be close to where Lola went missing and Alex didn't expect to get much sleep anyway, not until Lola was safe and sound. Rachel decided to go home and come back the next day with Charlotte, which Alex didn't mind.

Ross pulled up outside central perk and thought back to the past. He loved this place, it was the place where he and Rachel had their first kiss and for this reason alone, it was one of Ross's favorite places, he just wished he was coming back there for a happier reason. He saw his wife standing on the side walk. It had obviously become too much for Rachel to deal with, she couldn't cope any more, she wanted to wait until she was in the car but it simply wasn't possible. It was 8:30pm and she had been out since 9am. Lola had been missing for eight hours and everyone was petrified that she wouldn't be coming home. Ross saw that his wife was unbelievably upset and climbed out of the car. Rachel saw him coming and opened her arms to him. All she wanted right now was a big cuddle from her husband and to see that Emma and Charlotte were okay, Ross and Rachel stood there embracing for about ten minutes before Rachel felt strong enough to let him go. Gunther had been watching the entire time and was insanely jealous, just like before Ross and Rachel moved away from the city. Ross picked up Charlotte from the stroller and put her into the car while Rachel folded the stroller and put it in the trunk. Rachel stepped into the front seat of the Porsche and turned to look at her two beautiful daughters. Before Emma was born, Rachel never thought that she could love any one as much as she loved Emma, Charlotte and Ross.

"You okay, honey?" Ross gave her a kiss and then a big cuddle "come here, you can cry all you want, it's just me now!"

Rachel didn't need to be told twice, she just let the barriers down and screamed and cried for Lola and Alex. They were there for nearly a whole hour before Rachel stopped completely. Ross and Rachel both decided that it was a good thing that both Emma and Charlotte weren't light sleepers as they shouldn't see their mother in the state that Rachel was in, ever.

"Ross" Rachel sobbed "it was dreadful, one minute Lola was there, and the next she wasn't"

"oh, it must have been horrible for you" Ross knew that didn't sound sincere, but he had meant to be "how was Alex when she found out"

"oh" Rachel remembered the screaming "Ross, it was the worst I have ever seen anybody, she just screamed and screamed"

"is she okay now?" Ross knew that she wasn't he just wanted to show his concern

"well she calmed down, but I don't think she'll sleep tonight" Rachel turned and kissed Ross passionately on the lips "I love you"

"oh, Rachel, I love you too" Ross kissed her again, even more passionately this time "shall we head home?"

"Okay" Rachel smiled, knowing exactly what he wanted to do "we've got the house to ourselves" Rachel immediately regretted what she had said, she would much prefer that Alex and Lola were in their guest room prohibiting them having sex on the leather couch.

The drive home was quicker than the drive there. Probably because of the time of night but also because Ross really, really wanted to get home. As they pulled the Porsche into the Garage they could hear Ben's music keeping up the whole street again. Ross went straight up the stairs and told Ben to turn it down, which he did and then slammed the door in Ross's face. Ross went down the stairs and into the garage, he picked up Emma, who was fast asleep and carried her upstairs. Rachel picked up Charlotte and put her upstairs in her cot.

"are you feeling sexy?" Ross asked seductively once they had climbed into their bed "I know I am"

this time Rachel and Ross did have sex. They didn't have sex on the couch and they didn't have unprotected sex either. Rachel knew that she could be pregnant as it had only taken once with Emma and if she was honest she really didn't mind either way. After Ross and Rachel cuddled and held each other tight as they had done when they first got together all those years ago. Rachel was still worried about Lola and couldn't even begin to imagine what Alex and Joey were going through. Rachel had received a call from Mike while they were on their way home to say that Joey was landing at JFK in the early hours of the next morning. Mike was going to pick him up.

"Hello" the phone had rang and Rachel had reluctantly got out of her nice warm bed with her handsome, sexy amazing husband to answer the phone "Oh hello Monica"

"Hey" Monica said down the phone "it's a boy"

"oh, congratulations" Rachel was genuinely happy for Monica, she knew that all Monica had ever wanted was a little boy of her own "have you heard the bad news though?"

"yeah" Monica started to cry down the phone "Joey called Chandler, he's in a complete mess"

"oh, Monica" Rachel was getting upset too "you should have seen Alex, she was completely inconsolable"

"are you okay?" Monica asked her. If Monica had have been there she knew she would've felt really guilty about being there and not seeing anything "Joey told Chandler that you reported Lola as missing"

"yeah" Rachel was grateful to Monica for asking how she was "it was difficult and me and Phoebe felt so guilty for not seeing anything"

"I thought you would be, I know I would've been" Monica had know idea of how Rachel or Phoebe were feeling, and she couldn't even begin to imagine how Alex and Joey were feeling "but its good news about me and Chandler isn't it?"

"yes" Rachel was pleased for some good news and some good sex to end a positively awful day "congratulations Monica that's great" 


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter sixteen**

Alex couldn't sleep, there was no way in hell that she would ever be able to sleep again until Lola was found safe and well she kept running the events of earlier that day through her head again and again, what should she have done differently, where could she have put the stroller, did she remember seeing anyone acting suspicious? When Joey had arrived he had given her a hug and a kiss, but to Alex it didn't quite foe the same, she said sorry to Joey more times than Phoebe and Mike could count and every time the phone rang Alex was full of hope that it would be about Lola. Phoebe and Mike dreaded every phone call and neither of them wanted to be the one to pick up the phone and up and inevitably have to give Alex the bad news as it had been Mike's mom, his best friend or Phoebe's work asking her how much longer she would be on maternity leave. Phoebe and Mike tried to get some sleep, but it was almost impossible.

At five thirty in the morning Phoebe and Mike gave up trying to get some sleep and got up they had had limited bursts of sleep, but it wasn't good quality sleep. As Phoebe walked into the living room she saw Alex sitting at the table watching the telephone, looking like death warmed up.

"Alex" Phoebe rubbed her on the back "how are you feeling?"

Alex looked at Phoebe and shrugged her shoulders. "I keep imagining her screaming somewhere for me and it hurts me that I can't go and see to her" just as Alex thought she had no tears left she found a little pool and let them fall down her cheek "Phoebe, I ache to be with her, I want her to come home, if she doesn't come home to me soon then I don't know how I'm going to cope any more"

Phoebe looked into Alex eyes and knew exactly what she was saying and exactly what she was thinking. Phoebe didn't want that of Alex and prayed to all of her gods that Lola would be returned safe and well in the very near future. Mike came out of the room with Daisy and went to sit on the sofa, however he couldn't get to it as Joey was sitting there with both fingers crossed clinging on to the teddy that Rachel had brought for Lola just a few moments before she'd vanished, he wasn't asleep but he looked like a zombie. Suddenly the phone went, everyone froze, and stood rooted to the spot. Phoebe lent forward and picked it up

"Hello" she took a deep breath "Phoebe Hannigan speaking"

"good morning, is Miss Garrett there" the voice on the other end of the phone demanded "it's regarding her daughter"

Phoebe handed the phone over to Alex who was a complete mixture of fear and hope "hello, Alexis Garrett speaking"

"we've found your daughter" the same voice told her "she's at the hospital if you would like to go and collect her"

Alex collapsed with relief and sobbed again "they've found her, they've found her" Alex screamed at the top of her voice. Joey immediately woke up from his daze and grabbed the phone of his fiancee

"where is she?" Joey shouted down the phone to the police "and have you caught the person who did it?"

Alex didn't wait for Joey to finish the conversation with the policeman and neither did Phoebe. They were both on their way down to Phoebe and Mike's people carrier. As soon as Joey realized they had gone he followed them. Mike thought he ought to call Monica and Rachel but wondered weather five thirty in the morning was a good time to call. He decided to leave it for a couple of hours and let Alex and Joey do the honors when they came back with their baby that had been missing for over twelve hours.

Alex, Joey and Phoebe all got out of the car and ran to the reception in the emergency room. Half way there Alex stopped, she was worried that it wasn't Lola, that it was some other two day old baby girl with dark brown hair and stunning blue eyes. Part of her wanted to hold on to the hope forever and stay rooted to that spot for the rest of her life. The other part of her wanted to go and see whose baby it was in the emergency room. If it wasn't hers, she would keep looking but if it was hers she wanted to hold her, look after her, feed her, take her home and never let her out of either her sight or Joey's sight for the rest of her life.

"Alex come on!" Joey called to her "we've gotta go and get our baby girl"

"what if it's not her" Alex shouted down the hall so that all the doctors, nurses and other patients could hear her loud and clear "what if it's some other baby that has gone missing, what if Lola's laying dead somewhere"

Joey walked all the way back up to Alex and flung her arms round her "if this baby is not Lola, I will personally walk around New York until I find her" Joey felt a tear run down his face and he could sense that Alex was crying too "but if this is our baby we need to take her home, look after her and carry on being a family"

"okay" Alex looked at Joey and forced the first smile onto her face in over twelve hours "you promise me that if it's not her you will look"

"I promise" Joey took Alex in his arms one more time and squeezed her tight "now lets go and get our baby"

The baby in the emergency room was Lola-Marie Tribbianni, she was a little bit hungry but apart from that she was healthy. Joey picked up the phone and rang Mike, Rachel and Ross, and Monica and Chandler to tell them the good news, of course everyone was really pleased and relieved with the news. Rachel and Ross decided to throw a party and invite the whole gang, all seventeen of them. Lola was given a clean bill of health and they were told straight away that they could take her home. The woman that had stolen her had handed herself into the police. She had been lying to her husband saying that she was pregnant and decided that stealing a baby was her only option to carry on the lie, she'd have planned the whole thing months ago and Alex and Lola had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. After guilt consuming her for over twelve hours she had taken Lola to the hospital, still in the brand new stroller that Alex had just purchased for her and handed it all in. Alex walked out of the hospital a mother again, she was back to Alex the mommy, and she loved it, she never wanted to change it.

Mike drove Alex, Joey and Lola back to Ross and Rachel's and called in sick. Phoebe followed on the train as they all wouldn't have fitted into the car. Once they arrived at Rachel's the party started. Chandler had decided to take the day off work so that they could all enjoy Lola's return and Ben was the only child that went to school that day. It was lucky that Ross hadn't promised Ben that he would have some dad time because he didn't get it. Everyone was too involved in Alex and Lola's safe return. Ben had known about the plan though, and was not happy that the plans had changed.

"I'm sorry that I didn't look after Lola properly, please don't be angry with me" Alex sobbed to Joey that evening after Phoebe and Mike had headed home and Lola was back where she should have been, in her brand new Moses basket. "I should have kept a more closer eye on her, I should never have left the stroller where I left it"

"Alex" Joey's heart was so full of love for Alex and Lola, he wanted to be annoyed at her, he wanted to scream and shout at her and call her all of the names under the sun for loosing the most important thing in Joey's world, but he couldn't. Instead, he decided to forgive her, he knew that she would have punished herself for loosing Lola but deep deep down something in their relationship had changed and Joey didn't know how he was going to cope with it, on some level all he wanted to do was kiss her and make love to her as they hadn't yet consummated their engagement "I love you so much, I'm not angry with you, I'm happy that Lola is back where she belongs, with us"


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

The day came for Rachel and Ben to have their one to one bonding time. It was apparent to Ross that neither of them were looking forward to it, which Ross could understand, as Ben thought that Rachel hated him and Rachel was worried that Ben was going to shout at her there was no question that Ross would have been dreading it too. Rachel looked at the clock, fearful of the time three o'clock came around and Rachel had to go and pick up her step-son, alone, no Emma, no Charlotte, no Ross, just Rachel and Ben.

Rachel sat outside Ben's high school in the silver Mercedes convertible that she had bought on a whim after Charlotte was born to make herself feel like a yummy mummy again. Rachel was really dreading today, she loved Ben to bits but ever since Carol and Susan had died he had slowly changed into a completely different person. Rachel watched him walk out of the school with his best mate, James and then stomp over to the car.

"Right" Ben sulked as soon as he got in, Rachel knew he wasn't even going to give Rachel a chance "let's get this over and done with, what are we doing"

"Well," Rachel thought that that was a very up front way to start what she hoped was going to be a survivable evening "what would you like to do?"

"whatever" Ben shrugged his shoulders and looked out of the window, completely denying Rachel any amount of eye contact

"Ben, how are you feeling?" Rachel asked him, trying to get him to speak, trying to get him to say something more than a grunt to her as she drove them to the restaurant, however, he didn't respond to her question so she just carried on talking "I do love you, you know?" Rachel took her eyes of the road for a couple of seconds to look at her step-son, it was lucky that they were on a straight road because Rachel looked for longer than a few seconds. Ben was crying, he was trying not to but a few tears were falling down his cheeks. Rachel pulled into a side road and looked at him. Where had that little baby gone, the baby that had been born the day that Chandler joked about him and Monica having a baby, where was the toddler that Monica had accidentally lifted too high during a game resulting with him bumping his head, where was that little boy that Rachel had taught all the practical jokes too? "Ben, come on, talk to me darling"

Ben shrugged his shoulders and wiped the tears away from his eyes "I just miss mom and mom"

"I know, darling" Rachel put her hand on Ben's shoulders "but I'm here, you can talk to me about anything"

"YOU ARE NOT MY MOM!" Ben screamed at her "YOU ARE JUST A HORRIBLE, CHEAP SLUT!"

"Ben!" Rachel was extremely upset and shocked by Ben's outburst "I'm not a slut!"

"Yes you are!" tears of anger and frustration streamed down Ben's face, he was not in the least bit happy that he was stuck in his step-mum's car having this argument, he would have much rather that they were at home in the living room so that he could have stormed up to his bedroom for the rest of the evening "you slept with my dad because you were desperate"

"Ben, I was not desperate, it just happened, and anyway where are you getting all this information from?" Rachel didn't know what to do or say in response to this, she hadn't told him and she didn't think Ross would have told him either

"My moms told me" he spat "they were honest with me, they always told me the truth, they were always honest with me!"

"Right then" Rachel turned her body and looked at Ben, she did love him, true, not as much as Emma and Charlotte but that was just natural, Rachel loved Ross more than anyone else in the world and the fact that Ross loved Ben, Emma and Charlotte in exactly the same way made Rachel really want to understand and have some sort of relationship with this evidently lost and angry young man. "ask me anything, anything you want and I will tell you as honestly as I feel you are ready for"

"Okay" Ben thought seriously about the questions that he was going to ask her "why are you here and talking to me?"

"Because I love you" Rachel answered truthfully "and I love your dad and I love the girls, and I want to help you, I want us to live in a happy home!"

The questioning went on for a very long time, Ben asked questions about many things, Emma, Charlotte, Ross and many other things.

"Ben" Rachel wanted to ask him a question, the question that Rachel had no idea how Ben would react in response to the question, but she knew that she had to ask it "why did you say those things to Emma?"

Ben's whole attitude changed there and then. He stiffened up again, and could feel his hand involuntarily going into a fist. Before they both knew it Ben's hand had struck Rachel's face just above her left eye, she put her hand to her face as immense pain exploded in her eye. Ben, however, let his other hand go into a fist and struck her on the other side of her face. After four punches, Ben realized what he was doing and stopped. He didn't say anything just turned away from his step-mum and looked out of the window. Rachel went onto auto pilot, she turned the keys, put the car into gear and drove home, it didn't take long, but the whole trip continued in silence, tears streaming down Rachel's face and anger building again in Ben's.

As soon as they pulled into the drive, before Rachel could even turn off the engine Ben had slammed the door and stormed into the house. Rachel stayed exactly where she was in the car and let a mixture of blood and tears fall onto her expensive Ralph Lauren jeans. Ross had taken Emma and Charlotte out to the park and Alex and Joey had driven back to LA to introduce Lola to Gina and Michael so apart from Ben there was no one in the house. Rachel didn't really want to be sitting in her car all alone, bleeding through several cuts all over her face and her nose, she decided to go and see if Monica was in, but it wasn't an easy decision, Rachel was feeling sick and horrible but some how she managed to stumble out of the car and stagger up to Monica's front door. As she rung the door bell she collapsed down the door sobbing, feeling sick and bleeding she didn't know what to do and she just hoped that Monica was in the house.

"Rachel!" Monica crouched down to look at Rachel and saw the bleeding "Rachel, what happened?" Rachel looked up at Monica, her face was so swollen she was almost unrecognizable, Monica put her hand to her mouth and started crying herself "who did this too you, Rachel, who hit you?"

"Ben" Rachel sobbed, she didn't know how anyone was going to respond to this, let alone Ross and Monica, "Ben hit me because I asked him why he told Emma she was an accident"

"Does Ross know?" Monica felt that this was important to ask, and that Ben should be spoken to as soon as possible by his father, no one else had the right or the confidence to say anything to Ben about the way he was treating his step-mother. "because I think he should"

"He's taken the girls to the park" Rachel managed, somehow to stand herself up and stagger into Monica's living room, Monica tried to help her but being pregnant, couldn't do a lot.

"I'm going to call him" Monica punched Ross' number into her cell phone and waited for him to answer

"Hey, Mon" Ross sounded really excited and happy to be where he was with his girls "would you like to come and join us in the park with the twins?"

"Ross" Monica took a deep breath and prepared herself for what she was about to tell her brother "you better come back here now!"

"Why?" Ross laughed "I'm having a great time with my girls, Rachel's out with Ben, hopefully having a good time, why do I need to come back to the house?"

"Because, Rachel and Ben are not out having a meal" Monica looked at Rachel who, it was clear to see, was a mess, both physically and emotionally "Rachel's here, and Ben has beaten her"


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Ross's first priority had to be Rachel, had obviously been hurt very badly by Ben so Ross left Emma and Charlotte with Monica and took Rachel to the hospital in the Porsche. On the way, Ross was apologized and apologized to Rachel for putting her in a situation that every body knew she wasn't comfortable with. Once they were finally seen after waiting in the emergency room for a very long time, it turned out that one of the cuts was so deep that she needed stitches in it. Ross had been thinking most of the evening, and he couldn't understand what had come across Ben and made him hit out in the way that he obviously had done, he didn't know what Rachel had said to enrage Ben but there was no question that what Ben had done was unacceptable unless Rachel had hit him first and Ross knew that Rachel would never do that. From the hospital itself there wasn't much that Ross could have done to punish Ben in any way, he could think about what he was going to do but that was it, Ross was quite pleased about having this time to think about it as he had absolutely no idea what he was going to do and how he was going to punish him. Rachel didn't quite know what to think of the whole situation, it had been a major shock to her what Ben had done, she wasn't so much worried about herself, but her girls, what if Ben hit out at them?

"Ross, you've got to talk to Ben," Rachel cut into the silence almost pleading with him to sort out this horrible mess "he's really really hurt me and what if he goes to hurt the girls?"I want to go and see the girls"

"I really do hope you are pregnant!" Ross announced out of the blue "I really want another baby!"

"Where has this come from?" Rachel tried to laugh but it hurt too much "the other day you said that we need to sort Ben out before we have another baby, and looking at the state of me, I don't think we've sorted him out"

"I don't know what's made me change my mind" Ross shrugged "I just love you so much, I feel like another baby would complete our family"

"You said that about Charlotte" Ross reminded her, rolling her eyes "plus I'm not in any fit state to have sex with you right now!"

"I know" Ross gently stroked her face, which made her wince a bit in pain "you're still beautiful thought"

"you have to say that" Rachel rubbed the top of his leg "you're my husband"

"I'm telling the truth though" Ross smiled "you have to let me know as soon as you're feeling better so that we can start trying again!"

"Well I hope it will be soon!" Rachel was starting to feel _the thing_ Ross generally made her feel that way any day but for some reason it was taking hold much quicker and making her feel loved, wanted and sexy all at the same time.

Monica stared out of the window of her house onto the street. For the past four years she had lived in that house with Chandler, Erica and Jack and for the past six years she'd been married to Chandler Bing, but things were completely different now. If someone had told her ten years ago that she would be married to that daft man who lived across the hall from her, and have adopted twins with him she would have laughed at them and possibly made them wash their mouth out with soap. But she had fallen in love, many times she questioned why, many times she wondered if she had settled for second best, and every time she had been completely sure that she hadn't. Now, though, as she stood staring out at the street that she would be living on for as far in the future as she could imagine, she knew that something had to be said to someone, for she had a dark secret. She had to tell someone, but who? She couldn't tell Chandler, it would bread his heart, Rachel was at the hospital with Ross and Alex and Joey were in LA that left Phoebe, now Monica loved her deeply, but she and Mike had a total honesty pact so she would no doubt tell Mike. If Monica wanted to tell anyone right now then it would have to be Phoebe

"Hey, Pheebs" Monica sounded really cool down the telephone, just a simple telephone call to one of her best friends "would you like to bring the girls round? I have Emma and Charlotte too"

"Okay" Phoebe responded down the phone "I'm in your area any way, just sorting out buying the house, I'll be round in twenty minutes."

In fact Phoebe was round quicker than that, as soon as she let Libby and Summer out of the stroller Monica grabbed her arm

"Phoebe, I can't keep it in!" Monica sounded and looked panicked "I have to tell someone, it's eating me alive!"

"Okay!" Phoebe had absolutely no idea of what the problem was "you can tell me I'm listening!"

"It's the baby!" Monica rubbed her bump which seemed to be growing more by the day "it's not Chandler's!" 


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter nineteen**

Phoebe didn't really know what to say in response to that, she started running though her head the people who it could be. Her immediate though was Joey but he had been in LA, she then though about Mike, but only for a second as deep down she knew it wouldn't be him.

"So who is it?" Phoebe demanded "you can't tell me something like that and not tell me who the father is!"

"you have to promise me you wont tell anybody" Monica pleaded "not even Ross and Mike!"

"I can't promise not to tell Mike" Phoebe told her without a second thought "but I won't tell Ross, I promise that!"

"It's Richard's baby!" Monica prepared her self for the abuse that no doubt would be coming her way, since Phoebe had been caught out with the teacher and the fireman all those years ago she simply couldn't stand cheating.

"When did you manage to sleep with him?" Phoebe was puzzled, she couldn't remember when Monica would have seen him "and are you sure it's his?"

"do you remember about five months ago it was mom and dad's anniversary," Monica reminded her "Ross was away with work, and Erica and Jack had chicken pox so Chandler told me to go on my own"

"yes, I remember" Phoebe nodded her head and thought about the horrific time when the twins had the chicken pox, and Libby and Summer had gone through it too "wasn't Rachel there?"

"yes" Monica remembered going with Rachel "but she went home early because of Emma and Charlotte and I said I was going to stay at mom and dads, but I didn't"

"how did it happen then?" Phoebe shook her head, absolutely disgusted with her friend "well after Rachel left I got talking to Richard, one thing lead to another and the next morning I woke up in his bead"

"did you tell Chandler" Phoebe had lost a lot of respect for Monica "or have you been lying to him?"

"I haven't told Chandler anything, I told him I stayed in a hotel over night"

"are you sure it's not Chandler's?" Phoebe knew she was just grabbing at straws here but she had to say it "weren't you sleeping with him at the time?"

"Of course!" Monica admitted "but think about it, me and Chandler have been trying for a baby since Emma was born, with nothing, I sleep with Richard once, just once and I am pregnant"

"okay" Phoebe put her head in her hands "Monica, what are you going to do?"

right at that moment, Rachel and Ross came in, Phoebe was shocked at the way Rachel was looking and even more shocked when she found out that it was Ben that had done it too her. The swelling was starting to go down, but she still didn't look like Rachel, not completely anyway. Monica looked up and saw the faces on her brother and sister-in-law's faces. They had heard every word and both Phoebe and Monica knew it. That was it, game over, by the end of the night Chandler would know and would throw her out. Monica wanted to plead with Rachel and Ross not to tell him, Ross and Chandler had been friends since college and she knew that there was know way Ross would keep it from him. Monica decided to think about this rationally, Ross may not pass on that his sister had cheated on his best friend, after all blood is thicker than water, and Ross would probably keep to that.

"Don't say anything to Chandler" Monica pleaded "please don't ruin my life"

Ross couldn't even look at his sister, true Ross had cheated on Rachel years ago but he knew almost straight away that it was the worst mistake he had ever made, and anyway Monica was married now, what did she think she was doing? "Monica, I can't even look at you right now! You disgust me"

"What did you think you were doing?" Rachel asked her "don't you remember how I was after Ross cheated on me all those years ago?"

"You're going to break Chandler's heart!" Ross added "how could you do this?"

"please don't tell him!" Monica got down on her knees and pleaded with her brother "please don't tell him!"

"He'll find out eventually" Rachel told her, almost as disgusted with her as Ross was "you won't be able to keep it from him forever!"

Joey and Alex's journey home wasn't the best but it wasn't the worst either. Lola didn't enjoy take off and landing on the plane, but she slept for four out of five hours on the plane. They had enjoyed their holiday seeing Gina and Michael. There had even been a uncomfortable moment when Alex had bumped into her now ex-husband Eric, he had said congratulations and swiftly moved on to his now pregnant new girlfriend. Alex had told Joey that the engagement ring that Eric had brought her had been a lot smaller than the one Joey had bought her and Joey was very proud of this. After two weeks away, however, they were excited to be heading home.

Ross had promised Joey that he would go and pick them up and that's what he did. Him and Rachel had not had the best two weeks. In punishment for the beating up his step-mom, Ben had been grounded for the two weeks and had his PlayStation three taken away from him for a month. Right now though, Ross wasn't thinking about Ben, he was thinking about Rachel, she was due on any day now and they both had their fingers crossed that she wouldn't come on, that she was pregnant. Rachel had promised him that if anything happened that day she would text him a unhappy face, so every time his blackberry went off he was dreading looking at it. So far, however, so good, he'd received a text from Joey saying that they had landed and that was it. Once Ross got home from picking up Joey, Alex and Lola from the airport Rachel would take a pregnancy test and pray for a positive result. Ross constantly looked at his phone, but there was still no messages from Rachel.

"hey Alex, hey Joey!" Ross smiled at his friends has they came through the gate "good flight?"

"brilliant!" Joey rolled his eyes "what have we missed?"

"well Ben beat up Rachel" both Alex and Joey stopped dead where they were

"Why?" Alex asked, genuinely puzzled "why would he do something like that?"

"We don't know" Ross shrugged "he says that she made her angry, but he's not sure why"

"you've got to do something about Ben" Joey told him honestly, fearing for the safety of his fiancee and child

"We are" Ross responded "he's grounded, and we're talking to him!"

Ross tried racing home but got caught at every traffic light and stop sign that was on the way. Joey and Alex both noticed that he was getting frustrated with the lights and also that he was speeding in between the lights

"Ross" Joey screamed at him "why are you getting so frustrated"

"there's a chance Rachel might be pregnant" Ross confessed, smiling obviously giddy with excitement "we're doing a pregnancy test tonight"

"Wow" Joey smiled and was almost as giddy as Ross "okay, go faster, Joey screamed at him again"

When they got home Ross helped them into the house and then ran straight over to Rachel

"did you get a test" Ross asked her really excited, so excited in fact that he couldn't stand still "or shall I go and get one"

"stand still Ross" Rachel laughed, she still had a little bruising on her face but the most of it had gone "you look like you're suffering from stvitus dance"

"have you got one though" it was true, he did look like he was suffering from stvitus dance "because if you don't then I'll go and get one"

"I've got one" Rachel looked nervous "and I also have a full bladder"

"right" Ross's excitement was almost over flowing "to the on-suite!"

In her life time Rachel had done two previous pregnancy tests and both of them had been positive. Both her and Ross were hoping that would be a positive test too, even though this was her third time it didn't make the wait go any quicker and it didn't get any easier. Ross and Rachel always made small talk for the wait. Soon enough the time had come to check the little white stick that held the key to their family's future. Rachel didn't want to look and neither did Ross so Rachel picked up the pregnancy test and took it downstairs. The whole gang had turned up to welcome back Alex and Joey.

"hello" Monica smiled at them, knowingly "so what's the verdict?"

"What do you mean?" Rachel knew exactly what she meant but wanted to make doubly sure before letting the cat out of the bag "verdict on what?"

"I'm sorry" Joey confessed "I told everyone what was happening, I hope you don't mind"

"it's okay" Ross put his hands on Rachel's shoulders "we haven't looked yet"

Rachel walked over to Alex and handed her the pregnancy test "would you tell us what it says please?"

Alex was honored the only pregnancy test she had read before was her own and that had been positive, she hoped to god that this was positive too, she closed her eyes, and put the test in front of her. As Alex opened them she saw just one word in front of her eyes 'positive'. She looked up at Rachel and Ross, they both had their eyes closed "it's positive" Alex smiled and Ross and Rachel both opened their eyes to look at her

"it's what?" Rachel grinned "did you say it's positive"

"yes" Alex screamed at her "I did, it's positive"

"oh my god" Rachel turned to hug Ross "it's positive"

"we're going to have another baby" Ross re affirmed the meaning of a positive pregnancy test "come here"

Ross and Rachel embraced and held each other tight for as long as they could. Every one was really pleased for them.

"We should go out to celebrate" Phoebe smiled "just us girls on Friday night, and then the boys on Saturday night"

"yeah" Rachel smiled and then thought about the consequences "but none of us can drink"

"doesn't matter" Alex smiled "i haven't been out since I can remember, I can't wait!" 


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter twenty**

All four of the girls thought that maybe one or two glasses of wine would be okay and not affect the children that they were either feeding or carrying, or in Rachel's case, both, so they ordered one bottle of red wine and four glasses. Phoebe and Alex carried them over to where the others were sitting. On the way back to the table Phoebe noticed David the scientist guy with his friend sitting on the other side of the bar, she didn't say anything to Alex, who wouldn't know him anyway, but she did take a mental note of where he was sitting, so she could go and say something later on

"Okay, okay" Rachel giggled while pouring out the wine "so here's to all our wonderful children"

"yes" Monica agreed, feeling so proud of where she was in the beautiful top that she had found on a shopping trip with Rachel "here's to Erica, Jack, Ben, Emma, Charlotte, Liberty, Summer, Daisy and Lola"

"And Daniel" Phoebe added, referring to Monica's growing bump

"and Lucas or Bethanie" Rachel let out of the bag the names that her and Ross had chosen for their new baby "this baby is going to be called Lucas or Bethanie"

"they are beautiful names" Alex smiled impressed that it had taken just two days for Rachel and Ross to pick names that they agreed on "you're very organized, choosing them already"

"Well, it was so difficult picking Emma's name that when we found out about Charlotte we picked her name straight away" Rachel explained to Alex while remembering the problems that naming Emma had caused "we've decided on Lucas and Bethanie right away too"

"Monica?" Alex turned to her as she looked like she was feeling a bit left out "you still sticking with Daniel?"

"yes" Monica rubbed her ever growing belly "it feels so brilliant to feel pregnant after so long"

"What about the twins?" Alex was puzzled "don't you remember being pregnant with them?"

"they're adopted" Monica corrected her "me and Chandler thought that we couldn't have children." she shot a knowing glance to Rachel and Phoebe before smiling back at Alex "but now I'm pregnant"

"wow" Alex thought about Monica and Chandler, she would never had guessed that Jack and Erica weren't biologically theirs

"so" Rachel interrupted, changing the subject, not wanting to get involved in the Monica and Chandler's baby conversation and have to lie her ass off "are you going to have another one Alex?"

"one day" Alex thought about her beautiful baby girl, her Lola, she thought that she was doing very well considering that for nearly twenty for hours just two weeks ago she had no idea where her baby was "I'm enjoying just having fun enjoying Lola at the minute"

"can I just say" Rachel added "you are doing so well leaving Lola after all you've been through, how are you doing it?"

"all I'm thinking" Alex tried not to cry, but it was very difficult considering that it was still a little difficult "I just think that the odds of it happening to me again are not very high, so I am trying to not let it worry me"

as the night went on they talked about many things and danced to many songs. After a while Phoebe disappeared, she had drunk a little bit more wine than the two glasses they had allowed themselves at the beginning of the night.

"hey, Phoebe" David walked up to her "how are you?"

"oh David" Phoebe had forgotten that she had seen him earlier in the night, she had definatly had too much wine and this made her doubt her relationship with Mike for the first time in four years "hi how are you?"

"I'm fine" David responded "I got a new job"

"Oh, good" Phoebe was genuinely pleased for him "I married Mike"

"oh" David's tone went a little lower as his heart sank "you did huh? So, how long have you been married?"

"Four years" Phoebe nodded, David looked really really sexy "we have three girls too!"

"oh really, you're a mom now?" David's heart sank even lower "how old are they, what are their names?"

"Liberty's three, we call her Libby Summer's eighteen months and Daisy is eight weeks"

"wow a new baby" David turned to walk away "I'll see you around"

"No, stay" Phoebe took his arm and pulled him towards her, he kissed her on the lips and sunk into the kiss "don't say anything, just kiss me"

from the other side of the dance floor Monica stood and watched Phoebe kissing David. There was no way either of them could take the moral high ground now. Monica looked down at her watch and shook her head. It was 10pm, Mike was probably at home now giving Daisy her late night feed after putting Summer and Libby to bed.

"What's up, Mon?" Rachel saw her watching and followed her eye across the dance floor, Rachel could see exactly what Monica could "I can't believe it"

"I know, after all she said to me about Richard!" Monica saw the expression on Rachel's face and realized that bringing up the Richard thing wasn't the best of ideas at the minute

"While we're on that" Rachel thought about that evening, all the things that they had said and done while they were there "aren't you and Chandler sleeping together?"

"yes, we are sleeping together," Monica responded "what does that matter"

" you're sure that Daniel's not Chandler's are you?"

"I don't think so" Monica looked at Rachel and told her friend, possibly the worse thing that she could say right now "there's a chance he could be Richard's"

Rachel started backing away from Monica as reality was hitting her "Ican't believe you slept with Richard Burke?"

"I know" Monica stepped forward to try and stop Rachel running away "I regret it, I really do, it was the biggest mistake ever"

"what the hell were you thinking?" Rachel screamed at her, in front of Alex "didn't you think about Chandler? Didn't you think that what you were doing was going to rip out his heart?"

"What's happened" Alex asked clearly concerned

"Monica here is pregnant by her ex boyfriend" she announced to the whole bar "the baby that she is carrying is not her husband's but her ex's, Monica Bing has been having an affair"

"You knew this days ago!" Monica reminded her "why didn't you freak at me at home rather than in a club?"

"Because it has just hit me what is going on, I didn't really believe it until I saw Phoebe over there kissing David" Rachel looked at Alex and then back at Monica "I'm going back to the hotel, I can't cope with this right now!"

"I'll come with you" Alex had lost a lot of respect for Monica and Phoebe, no one knew where Phoebe was and right now Rachel and Alex didn't care.

Monica decided to follow them back to the hotel to see if they would talk to her when they got there. On the way they all saw Phoebe again, getting into a cab with David. It didn't take a genius to work out what they had on their mind or what they were going to do. The three other girls piled into the cab behind them and practically followed Phoebe's all the way to the hotel.

"Daddy, daddy" Emma stood next to the bed that Ross was asleep in and pulled on his covers "daddy wake up"

"Emma?" Ross opened his eyes to see his beautiful daughter standing next to the bed, her rag doll in one hand and her blanket in the other "what's the matter darling?"

"Can I get into your bed daddy?" Emma asked sweetly "I had a bad dream"

"Okay" Ross relented just this one time "in you get"

"Where's mommy?" Emma started to cry "is she okay?"

"she's fine darling" Ross hugged her tightly "she's gone out with Auntie Monica, Auntie Phoebe and Auntie Alex."

"When will she be back?" Emma was always concerned when either Rachel or Ross weren't in bed

"tomorrow" Ross assured her "no come on Emma, daddy wants to get some sleep"

"Okay daddy" Emma put her head on Rachel's pillow and shut her eyes, Ross stroked her hair and kissed her on the forehead before rolling over and shutting his eyes too "daddy?"

"yes" Emma, Ross had a feeling this would go on for the rest of the night, and it was only 11pm "what is it Emma?"

"I love you"

"I love you too" Ross couldn't be cross with that comment, he just hoped that now Emma would go to sleep "good night"

the morning came all to quick for Ross, he was just grateful it was a Saturday and he wouldn't have to do the school run without Rachel there too. Emma was stretched out on Rachel's side of the bed and most of Ross's too. He knew that letting Emma sleep in their bed wasn't the best of ideas but he decided to just leave her there for now. He climbed out of his bed and down the stairs. Even though he didn't have to do the school run he did still have to do breakfast. Charlotte would be waking up any minute and Emma wouldn't be far behind her. Ben would get up as and when he was ready too.

"hey" Rachel walked in the door and collapsed on to the sofa, closely followed by Alex "you okay?"

"Honey, something's wrong?" Ross always knew when something was wrong with his wife, it was due to being her friend for ten years, being married for three years and having two children with her that made him know her so well "What's the matter?"

"I gave Monica a piece of my mind about the whole Richard thing!" Rachel told him she obviously regretted what she had said in the heat of the moment "I said some things I didn't mean and announced her situation to the whole club!"

"Rachel" Ross scolded her "was that really necessary?"

"No" Rachel answered "I want to go and apologise to her"

"okay, well go later" Ross approached her on the sofa and put his arms out to her "give me a hug and a kiss first, I missed you"

"oh baby" Rachel smiled and kissed him back "I missed you too!"

"how's the baby" Ross rubbed her stomach and bent down to give it a kiss "did the baby enjoy the evening?"

"I think so" Rachel laughed "I'm only four weeks gone, it's hard to tell!"

before they know it they were joined by Emma, Joey and Lola and the breakfast routine was in full swing. Ben didn't join them for breakfast and Ross wasn't surprised or worried about this, Rachel was surprised at Charlotte though, she didn't normally sleep that long.

"I'm just going to check on Charlotte" Rachel pulled herself off the sofa and started climbing the stairs, Charlotte's room was at the top of the stairs and so it didn't take long for Rachel to make it. When she did get there she was so shocked by what she saw that she screamed.

Ross dropped what he was doing straight away and ran up to be with his wife, the scene that greeted him would haunt him for the rest of his life. There was Ben, his son holding a pillow over Charlotte's head, Ben jumped away from where he was and pulled the pillow with him. Ross ran over to Charlotte's cot and picked her up.

"Call 911" he shouted with tears in his eyes "Charlotte's not breathing!"


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty-One**

Luckily the paramedics got to Charlotte in time, it was touch and go for a few minutes but eventually she made it through, Rachel and Ross were allowed to take Charlotte home later that day but Rachel refused to let her out of her sight while Ben was in the house. Ross finally had an idea about Ben, Rachel didn't want him in the house and Ross didn't really either, and knew that while Ben was living in the house Rachel would never relax the only way to keep Ben out of trouble and out of Rachel's way was to send him to boarding school, so that is what would happen. Ross would make sure that he got him into one where he could have counseling so he could talk to someone who could hopefully sort him out. Joey had come out in the Porsche to collect them from hospital, as they had gone in the ambulance and by the time they got home from the hospital everyone had heard about what happened to Charlotte and was disgusted with Ben, who, as usual had gone out.

"Is Charlotte okay?" Joey asked calmly but seriously "what happened?"

"Charlotte's fine" Rachel assured him "we've just got to keep an eye on her, Ben on the other hand is in deep trouble"

"What are you going to do?" Alex asked with a lot of sympathy "with Ben I mean"

"I don't know" Rachel answered, tears streaming from her eyes "but somethings got to be done, and soon!"

"he's going to boarding school" Ross announced "I'm going to make some calls and try and get him into one on Monday"

"Thank you, Ross" Rachel gave him a cuddle "I think that's the best thing for every one"

"I just wish I'd have thought about it before," Ross held on tightly to Rachel "and then maybe Charlotte wouldn't have gone through what she did"

"well at least you've thought of it now" Rachel kissed him on the cheek "and no one else will have to be hurt by him"

Ross made some calls and managed flirt his way to getting Ben into a good High School in New York City that Monday. It would mean that Sunday was out for Ross this weekend as he would be taking Ben to school and getting him all ready for his new week, but Rachel didn't mind her husband giving a whole day to his eldest son to get him out of their hair as long as Charlotte and Emma were safe. On that Sunday morning Rachel helped Ross and Ben pack up all of the stuff that Ben would need until he came home at Christmas, all of the things that Ben insisted go with him and all of the stuff that Rachel and Ross thought were necessary filled up the whole of the Porsche,they both commented that that they would need to get a people carrier like Phoebe and Mike had once the new baby was born. Rachel decided to take the train into the city and take the girls shopping. Seeing as Phoebe had asked her if they would all like to meet up. Rachel had reluctantly agreed but she was worried that she wouldn't be able to hold her tongue about Phoebe's obvious night with David the scientist guy, however Rachel needn't have worried about it because once they got there Phoebe didn't beat around the bush, she started talking about it straight away

"I can't believe what I did" Phoebe was obviously freaking out, Rachel could tell by the way she was dancing around and unable to keep still, she looked like she'd caught Ross's case of stvitus dance "I can't believe I had an affair, me?" Luckily Mike and Libby were having some one to one time and Emma had asked to stay with auntie Monica and play with Erica otherwise that would have been the cat out of the bag.

"I was shocked and disgusted" Rachel told her honestly, "I couldn't believe it"

"I know, what am I going to do?" Phoebe sobbed into her coffee mug in Central Perk "I hate myself, I'm so guilty for what I did"

"Have you told Mike yet?" as soon as the words came out of Rachel's mouth she realized what a silly question that was "sorry, its obvious that you haven't"

"no" Phoebe assured her "but I'm going to have to aren't I? It's going to break his heart"

"I'm sure he'll forgive you" Rachel rubbed her friend on the back, Rachel's hand itched like mad after rubbing the woolen cardigan that Phoebe was wearing "Mike seems to be a very forgiving kind of person, and he loves you more than anything in the world"

"I know" Phoebe nodded her head "but if it was the other way round I wouldn't forgive him"

"I bet you would" Rachel knew that she had to find some way of assuring her and trying to make things seem better "I bet you would shout and scream at him and then forgive him, Mike will no doubt do the same"

Phoebe knew Rachel was right, but it didn't stop her feeling guilty and it didn't change anything, she was dreading telling Mike and breaking his heart. After a lot of talking, Rachel and Phoebe decided that Mike had to know, but they also decided that Monica could be forgiven for what she had done to Chandler, but again she would have to tell him at some point.

Ben's new room was huge, the only problem was he was sharing it with three other boys. Ben didn't mind though, he was happy to get out of the house where he was living in with people who he thought hated him

"Thanks for this, dad" Ben sat on his new bed and looked around at the belongings of other boys that lived there and had been for what looked like forever, he had been told their names, his new room mates would be Elliott, Stuart, Harrison and Jacob "this is what I wanted from day one"

"why didn't you tell me?" Ross begged him "why did you have to go to such lengths to get what you wanted?"

"I didn't think you would let me" Ben confessed "I wish I had asked"

"I wish you'd asked too, you could have saved Rachel and Charlotte a lot of suffering" Ross shook his head "I'm so angry at you for what you have done to them both"

"I know dad" Ben started crying "I'm sorry"

"it's unacceptable, Ben, you could have killed Charlotte" Ross was getting very angry with Ben now, "you know what, you don't deserve to be getting all this help moving in"

"dad, please" Ben could see where this was going and didn't like it "don't leave me"

"I'm just going to say goodbye Ben!" Ross told him "you can unpack you're things, I'll see you at Christmas"

With that Ross left, he was heart broken that he had done that, but he had to, Ben needed to know that he wasn't going to get away with what he had done to Charlotte and Rachel, he was lucky that Rachel hadn't wanted to hand him into the police and let them deal with him. Ross managed to make it into the driver's seat of the Porsche and halfway up the road before he had to pull over because he was so upset and emotional. He thought of what could have done differently to make Ben not do this and not have to be sent to boarding school, he couldn't think of anything, both him and Rachel had been accommodating, in fact Rachel was eight and a half months pregnant when she climbed up the ladder and painted Ben's room blue like he had wanted. After about twenty minutes Ross decided that he'd done enough crying and wanted to focus the rest of his weekend with his wife and daughters. He pulled out his Blackberry and typed a text message to Rachel that read 'meet u outsde Cntrl Perk 20min, luv u, Rxx' after no time at all he received a reply that read 'lookin 4wrd 2 it, miss u lotz, luv u 2 R+Cxx'


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter twenty-two**

Phoebe arrived home a little bit before Mike and Libby and turned the oven on for dinner. Tonight they would have home made vegetable curry and rice, Mike's favorite, he just hoped that he wouldn't realize something was wrong until after the girls had gone to bed. But Phoebe had decided that she would tell him tonight, she had lived with the guilt for two days, and it was killing her, just killing her. After dinner Phoebe decided that she would do the bedtime routine and let Mike have the evening off. By 7pm Libby, Summer and Daisy were all in bed and it was time for Phoebe to break Mike's heart

"Mike," Phoebe took a deep breath and rubbed his shoulders, she had absolutely no idea why she had had sex with David, she didn't want him, she knew that she made the right decision all those years ago "I need to tell you something"

"What's up baby?" Mike could tell that something was very wrong but had no idea what it was, four things went through his mind, the health of his wife and three children "are the girls ill? Are you ill?"

"No" Phoebe smiled, she was touched by the fact that those were the first things that came to his mind, but it made it even harder for Phoebe to break his heart "we're all okay"

"Well what is it then?"

"on Friday night, I met up with David" she saw Mike's face fall, this was the beginning of the heartache "not intentionally, he was in the bar that I went to with the girls, but I saw him and he came up to me and he said hello"

"that's not all is it?" Mike questioned, knowing what was going to come next but praying that he was wrong "you did something with him, didn't you?"

"yes" Phoebe confessed, she choked on the next words, for a split second she felt like lying to him, saying that they just kissed, but she knew that if it came out at some other point it would be ten times worse "we slept together"

Mike looked into the eyes of his wife, Phoebe Hannigan and his heart broke. They had a life together, they had a family, they had three beautiful girls. He didn't want to loose this wonderful life that he had spend years looking forward to and working towards. Mike really didn't know what to do, he loved Phoebe more than life itself, he wanted to be with her, "why did you tell me? I mean you could have not told me and I would never have guessed"

"because I wanted to be honest with you" Phoebe could feel tears streaming down her face but she didn't remember letting them fall "and I feel so guilty, I wanted to tell you that I was drunk, it was a mistake and I love you"

"I love you too Phoebe" Mike was crying too, more than he had ever cried before, in his whole entire life "but I can't believe you did that, I thought I was the one you chose, I thought I was the love of your life"

"you are," Phoebe promised him, she knew that getting over this would take time, they wouldn't be okay over night "I love you, I don't even want to see David again, you're my man, you're my husband, you're the father to my girls, I want to grow old with you"

"Then why did you sleep with your ex?" as soon as Mike said it he regretted it, hearing the actual words made the situation real and Mike wanted this to be a horrible nightmare that he would wake up from

Phoebe didn't have a response for that, she just looked at him, she was hurt and he knew it, he also knew that she was full of remorse as she was so upset and so desperate for him to accept her apology and move on from this. "are we going to get through this?"

"I hope so" Mike looked at her for a second and then looked down again the second he looked at her he imagined her with him, David kissing her, David ripping all of her clothes off and making love to her "I really want to forgive you"

"so why don't you?"

"Because I don't know whether I trust you any more" Mike looked into her eyes, thank fully the image had gone "I had a surprise for you"

"What?" Phoebe knew for certain that she had really hurt Mike, more than he obviously thought she ever would, but she had absolutely no idea of what the surprise would be "what was the surprise?"

Mike got up from where he was sitting on the bright red cotton couch that didn't really go with anything else in the room and walked over to the beautiful oak cabinet he had brought for Phoebe for her birthday one year, he opened the door slowly hoping that it wouldn't creak and wake up Libby, Summer and Daisy and pulled out a silver set of keys that were glistening in the light and almost blinded Phoebe they were so bright "you know that house we loved?" Phoebe remembered the house, so close to Rachel and Ross's house that they could see into Emma's bedroom from theirs Mike tried to wipe away the tears from his eyes but they simply soaked his sleeve "I brought it for you"

"Mike, I..." Phoebe was lost for words, it was the most amazing house she had ever seen and now she thought that maybe there was a chance that they would get through this "I'm sorry"

"If I do decide to trust you and take you back you have to promise me something" Mike couldn't really believe he was giving Phoebe this chance, he always said that if someone cheated on him he would dump them right away no question about it

"Mike, I would do anything for you and the girls, you know that" Phoebe was totally honest with him, just like she had been all night "you tell me what to do and I'll do it"

"you never see David again" Mike demanded, he didn't know what he was going to do but he hoped that he could make it work with Phoebe, he loved her more than life itself, he was going to try and make this work, he was going to try and forgive her, he saw Phoebe shake her head and knew that giving this a chance was the right thing to do "if you find yourself in the same place as him you leave"

"Okay" Phoebe promised "I will never ever knowingly be in the same building as David, I promise you"

"and there's one last thing" Mike's expression changed from one of anger to one of cheekiness and love for his wife "you let me make love to you right now, because the thought of him being the last one to sleep with my wife is driving me crazy, and I have to change that right away"

"Okay" Phoebe thought this was weird, but she wasn't going to question it "let's go and make love"

"One more thing" Mike wiped the last tear away from his face "thank you for being honest with me, I do love you, and we will get through this, it will just take some time"


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter Twenty Three**

Once Ben was out of her hair, Rachel was much happier living in the house with just her husband and her girls, as much as she loved Ben, she was happier when he was living at his mom's house and only visiting at weekends and knew that Ben had been happier too. Rachel had no problem with Ben moving in, but she only wished she'd thought of sending him to boarding school, or at least, asking him if he wanted to go to boarding school in the first place so that all this could've been avoided. Emma was doing really well at school so Rachel was just so pleased with that, Emma's grades had fallen a little bit when Ben had moved in but now she was back on track and Emma was loving just living with her sister, mom and dad. Rachel hadn't worked since leaving Ralph Lauren all those years ago. As soon as her had Ross got together he had gained a promotion and now was head of Paleontology at NYU. For this reason Rachel had decided to become a lady of leisure, a stay at home mom, just as Monica did, Phoebe then followed suit as soon as Libby was born, they all thought that they would make the most of it while they could. Rachel much preferred being a stay at home mom than a working mom, although she did think that she worked harder as a stay at home mom then as a working mom. She had realized how much she enjoyed being with Charlotte and had felt so bad about not being with Emma all the time when she was tiny that she had taken her into the city and spent $500 of Ross's well earned money on Emma and Emma alone. Of course on the same day she spent $850 on herself and $250 on Charlotte, it was an expensive day for Ross, or at least Ross's credit card company which they were gradually paying off, and adding to the total due all the time.

Rachel looked out of the window in the attic room that she was clearing out for the new baby to go in, she had long been fed up of clearing everything into the garage that sat empty as Rachel hated the garage. Ross had gone to work, but he would be out in plenty of time to collect Emma from school, so Rachel decided that she was going to go into the city with Charlotte and spend a lot of money, again. This time, however she didn't have an excuse, except that she felt like it and she was sick of cleaning out the attic room. Rachel seemed to find shopping with Charlotte the easiest way to shop, when Ross was at work and Emma was at school she didn't hear complaints about how long they had been or how much they were spending. The first shop on her list was the Ugg Australia Flagship store in The Upper West Side, her Emma and Charlotte had every style in every color, Ugg were the only shoes that she would let her girls wear, good quality, good fit and they suited Emma and Charlotte even more than they suited her. Rachel paid over $1,000 for all the shoes that she had purchased. As she walked out of the shop it started to rain, Rachel's next stop was Central Perk for a coffee, she thought that she would make it without putting the rain cover on the stroller, however she got three steps down the road when the rain got heavier and so she decided that she should but the cover on, she was just in the middle of clipping it on and doing up the Velcro when her cell phone started ringing.

"Hey Pheebs" Rachel was trying to put the cover on the stroller at the same time as talking to Phoebe, she had obviously rung at the worst time because the rain was getting even heavier. "you okay"

"Well, Phoebe had just made herself a nice cup of coffee and was obviously up for a chat "I told Mike about David"

"Oh yeah" Rachel was still really struggling with the stroller "Phoebe I'm sorry, I'm outside Ugg Australia in the city, meet you in Central Perk in 20mins?"

"Okay Rach" Phoebe was extremely excited, Libby and Summer were at daycare, so it was just her and Daisy Phoebe really enjoyed just having one of the girls at a time "see you there!"

About twenty minutes later Rachel was sitting on the couch in the middle of Central Perk reading the latest issue of Vogue, she knew what Phoebe would want, ever since she had become pregnant with Libby she had drank decaf and nothing else and therefore Rachel always had one waiting, now because Rachel was pregnant again she also had to drink decaf too. Rachel always though of this as the worst part of pregnancy, but she knew that it had to be done in order to keep her baby safe, her mind focused and her husband happy. Charlotte had fallen asleep so as she always slept for nearly three hours in one go Rachel,knew that she would get a good way through her latest issue of vogue so she started reading. It wasn't long before Phoebe came into Central Perk with Daisy in the stroller, she noticed that Rachel had already got her coffee and thanked her with a smile as she started to gulp down the long awaited coffee.

"so you told him, eh?" Rachel commented, really interested in what Mike had said and also, reminding Phoebe of the main reason that she had wanted to meet up "how did he react?"

"Okay, considering" Phoebe smiled, she didn't really know herself how he reacted, it was kind of weird the way he had almost forgiven her within 10mins of finding out she had cheated on him "we have slept together since I told him"

"So are you two going to be okay?" Rachel was very surprised, she knew Mike wasn't one for falling out with anyone, and she thought that Mike did love Phoebe, but for him to react in a relatively easy manner certainly surprised her.

"I think so" Phoebe nodded and silently prayed again to all of her gods "I hope so"

Just at that moment Rachel heard her phone go off, she really wasn't expecting any body to be calling her right at that moment, it was even more strange that the person calling her was Chandler.

"Hey Chandler" Rachel said breezily, hoping that there were no problems "you okay"

"Well" Chandler sounded scared and didn't really know how to tell Rachel the horrible news that he was about to "me and Monica have had a bit of a busy morning"

"Okay" Rachel was puzzled as to why Chandler was telling her this, she knew they were still sleeping together but something about Chandler's tone on the phone told Rachel that sex wasn't what he was referring too "Chandler, is everything okay?"

"Well, Daniel was born this morning" this filled Rachel with dread, he wasn't due for just under three months "and he's very sick"

"okay" Rachel turned white and started crying, Phoebe didn't know what was happening, but realized that there was something terribly wrong here "what are they going to do with him?"

"They've taken him into special care" Chandler's voice was cracking, he didn't feel like he could continue with the conversation without getting dreadfully upset "they say it's touch and go"

"Okay Chandler," Rachel looked at Phoebe and mouthed exactly what Chandler had just told her and then shook her head "how's Monica?"

"medically she's fine" Chandler couldn't hold the tears back any more, it was Rachel, his sister-in-law and one of his best friends, Rachel would never judge him for crying at his very poorly baby son "but she's very upset"

"Okay," Rachel could feel herself welling up now too, she decided to cry too but she didn't care who judged her "let us know what happens, and if you need us"

Just three hours later, Ross was staring at his new nephew in the incubator. He looked so tiny covered in all the wires, Ross and Rachel knew what it was like to have a poorly child, Charlotte had been born three weeks early and had needed a little bit of help initially, but no where near as much help as poor little Daniel was in need of now. Monica was so pleased that her friends were all there to look after her and Daniel, but she felt so guilty, Chandler spent the whole time staring at 'his son', there was no question that he had fallen deeply in love with this tiny life that was being kept alive by the machines that beeped so loudly into the night.

"Hey" Ross put his hand on Chandler's shoulder, he noticed that his brother-in-law looked like death warmed up, just the way Ross had done after Ben, Emma and Charlotte were born, "how's he doing?"

"No change" Chandler didn't even look up from where he was staring at the little boy in front of him, his voice just in a monotone, totally oblivious to the fact that he had not moved an inch. "he looks so helpless"

"I know" Ross sat on the arm of the hospital chair that Chandler had been sitting on since just after he had phoned Rachel to tell her the news "even Charlotte didn't look this bad!" Ross realized about half way through the word 'bad' that he shouldn't have said that. "Sorry"

"It's okay" Chandler said, still in the same monotone voice "I know you mean well"

Monica was consumed with guilt, guilt that Richard now had a son and he didn't know it, guilt that Chandler thought he had another son, but didn't and guilt that the person sitting with Daniel was Chandler, the dad that wasn't his dad, although he thought he was. Rachel walked into her room with Alex and Phoebe, they all knew the deal, in fact the only one who didn't know about Daniel's father was Chandler.

Rachel looked Monica in the eyes, "how are you doing?" Monica went to answer, but Rachel wouldn't let her, she knew for a fact that Monica was going to say that she was fine and she knew that everything was going to be okay, Rachel also knew that Monica wasn't fine, and chances were, Daniel wouldn't be okay either "and I want you to tell me the truth"

"I'm okay" Monica responded, and then realized that was the safety answer to that question, Rachel didn't want the safety answer, she wanted the truth "no, I'm not fine" Monica corrected herself and wiped a tear away from her eye "and neither is Daniel"

"is there any hope?" Alex knew that that question probably wasn't the best one to ask right now, but she felt that it needed to be asked "is Daniel going to be okay"

"We don't know" Monica responded as truthfully as she could "there is a chance, but it's not very great"

"oh, Monica" Rachel had no idea what else to say, with Charlotte the chances of her surviving had been greater than the chances of her not, this time the chances of Daniel surviving were less than the chances of him not, and Rachel had no idea of how to deal with it.


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter Twenty-Four**

that night Ross couldn't sleep, he was too worried about Daniel and the fact that he was so ill and might not make it. By the time 2am came along he couldn't take it any more, he quietly got out of bed bending low enough that he didn't hit his head at the ornate carving on their four poster bed. He glanced at Rachel for a second to remind himself just how gorgeous she really was and then quietly closed the door behind him. He tiptoed down the corridor looking into Emma and Charlotte's room as he passed each one, both of his beautiful daughters were sleeping soundly in their beautifully decorated bed rooms. Rachel had decided to completely decorate the house when she was pregnant with Charlotte and therefor every room in the house had been painted. At the time Ross thought that it was a crazy thing to do to a six bedroom house while pregnant. However, if Ross was honest, he had been very pleased with the outcome of Rachel's obvious boredom.

After walking past the beautiful guest room, which Joey, Alex and Lola were still sleeping in he made it to the staircase. The stone of the stairs felt cold on his bare feet and so he had to kind of hop down the stairs as it was so cold it was hurting his feet that until about two minutes ago were snuggled at the bottom of the bed. Ross went into his study at the back of the house and sat in the leather Parker lounger that he had also purchased after Emma was born, on the same day as the Porsche. Ross swiveled the chair to look out of the window into their back yard. He imagined a picture of a couple of years ago, one weekend when Ben had come to visit. Even though Rachel had been very pregnant she had joined in with the body painting, it had been Emma's idea and they had made a huge collage that Ross had had framed and put on his wall. He was pleased that he had a swivel chair, because it meant that he was able to turn his chair to momentarily look at the collage before turning back to look out of the window again.

It had been so long since Ross had sat alone in his study with his thoughts. Before he became a father of three he had done it once every three months but now he simply knew he didn't have the time. Ross thought that he would regret this in the morning, but it was nearly summer time and soon university would be out for the summer.

Ross looked down at the pictures on his desk, there were a lot, sometimes people thought that he had too many pictures on his desk as he had exactly the same amount at work. He realized, after a lot of snooping that they had no pictures on their desks and once he pried even deeper he realized that that was because they had no wife and kids that they could be proud of. He looked at the picture of baby Ben. He remembered the day that he had been born, how he had felt so bad that his wife was a lesbian, and how there was mothers day, there was fathers day but every day was lesbian lover day! He remembered how he felt that his world had ended when he found out that Carol was a lesbian, but how everything had turned out well, he was now with the love of his life, he always knew, deep down, that Rachel was the one for him, when he was with Carol he just didn't know he knew it. He couldn't believe that Ben had been born over thirteen years ago and now there was Emma, Charlotte and the new baby to think about. He thought again about Emma's birth, the way he wanted to be with Rachel and hold her and love her. He knew by that point that he loved Rachel and always would.

Then he looked a Charlotte's baby picture, oh Charlotte, what a stressful day that had been. Rachel was so upset that she couldn't even hold Charlotte before she was whisked away to special care, and she was unable to hold her for another three days. How expressing the milk for Charlotte had been hell. Now Charlotte was a happy, healthy baby Geller, Ross hoped and prayed that Daniel's story would be as happy as Charlotte's. Suddenly, for no reason that Ross could think of right now he was drawn to his wedding photo to Rachel. Every time he looked at the photo he noticed something different about her. It was always something good, but this time it was her eyes. Those beautiful eyes that he looked into when he kissed her, the eyes that she had passed down to both Emma and Charlotte.

"Daddy?" Ross looked up from looking at the photo to see Emma standing in the doorway rubbing her eyes, he noticed those beautiful eyes in Emma just like he had done in Rachel, he couldn't believe that he had made the beautiful little girl that was talking to him, he couldn't believe that a drunken moment of fun had created Emma Geller. "daddy, there are scary monsters in my room"

"Oh no" Ross ran over to her and gave her a cuddle "why didn't you go and see mommy?"

"I wanted a cuddle from you, daddy" Emma rubbed her eyes and started crying "the scary monster made me wet the bed"

"Oh Emma," Ross squeezed his daughter tightly, "don't worry about it, come on, come into mine and mommy's bed"

Rachel had been disturbed by Emma calling 'daddy' in her bedroom and came down to see what the fuss was all about.

"Hey, you two" Rachel was pleased that she knew where her family was, and that they were all safe and sound "can I join in with the chatting?"

"sure mommy" Emma reached up to Rachel's neck, pulled her down and whispered in her ear "the scary monsters made me wet the bed, I'm sorry mommy"

"oh dear" Rachel bit her lip trying not to laugh at the cuteness of Emma's confession and subsequent apology "don't worry darling, me and daddy will sort it out"

"can daddy get rid of the monsters?" Emma genuinely seemed a little scared that the monsters were coming for her "they're in my bedroom"

"of course I can" Ross winked at Rachel who was obviously worried about what Ross was going to do to get rid of said monsters "but we'll have to do it tomorrow?"

Emma's face dropped, she obviously was expecting Ross to be able to sort it out there and then "but what if the monsters go into Charlotte's room and scare her?"

"Don't worry" Ross kicked himself for upsetting Emma again but also thought that she looked very cute when she was upset "we'll shut your door and then the monsters wont be able to get to Charlotte or anyone else?"

"But daddy" Emma had recognized a big flaw in Ross's master plan to get Emma back into bed "where will I sleep?"

Ross was stumped, he knew Emma was smart but she had out witted him here, in something so simple. "you can sleep in Ben's room"

"Ben's room is scarier than mine" Emma started crying again, she knew what she was doing though, Emma wanted to get into bed with Ross and Rachel for the rest of the night

Ross glanced at Rachel, he knew what Emma was doing too, but it was 2:30am and he wasn't sure whether he and Rachel could be bothered to fight this right now. "okay well you can sleep in mine and mommy's bed"

"yay" Emma won that one "is that okay mommy?"

Rachel rolled her eyes and glanced at her husband, his apologetic face was so yummy and sexy, tomorrow night she would have to make sure that the 'monsters' had gone from Emma's room so she and Ross could spend some quality time together. "that's fine darling, but tomorrow night we'll get rid of the monsters so you can sleep in your bed"

"Okay mommy" Emma smiled sweetly and skipped out of the study, she was gone for a few seconds before she came back into the room and looked, judgmentally at Ross "daddy, come on, you need to be brave and shut my bedroom door for me"

Ross dutifully followed Emma out of the room and up the stairs. Rachel sat down on the Parker lounger and looked at the photos on Ross's desk, she noticed that the wedding photo had been moved from its normal space into right in front of where he had been sitting, it made Rachel feel wonderful that Ross had got up in the middle of the night and was obviously looking at their wedding photo, she felt that she had the best husband in the world, and he was obviously the best father in the world too. It didn't take Emma long to wind Ross round her little finger, but Ross didn't mind, in fact he was pleased and was trying to wrap himself round Charlotte's little finger too.

Ross looked down at her iPhone, there was a message on there from Monica it read 'Daniel a little better. Thank u for evrythin 2day miss u, Ross, E,C and bump. Mon xx'

Rachel re read the message about twenty times and on every time it said that Daniel was better which made Rachel relax just a little bit. All of this was very sad for Rachel, it simply reminded her of the horrible time when Charlotte was born. Obviously she loved having Charlotte and wanted Charlotte so much but she wished that the time after Charlotte's birth had been a bit more straightforward. Emma's birth was slow, and late and Charlotte's birth was quick and early. Rachel was scared about the new baby being born she was hoping that it would be quick and right on time. Rachel thought that by now Ross and Emma would have managed to trap 'the scary monsters' into Emma's bedroom and curl up into her and Ross's bed. It was a good job that they had a king sized bed because Rachel knew that the three of them wouldn't fit into anything smaller.


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter Twenty-Five**

Monica sat next to Daniel's new crib in her and Chandler's bed room, how pleased she was, there were points during the last couple of months when she never thought this day would come. Chandler was still fast asleep, catching up on the sleep that he had missed while he was working all day and keeping a vigil at Daniel's bedside all night. It was the first night that Monica and Chandler and all three of their children in the same building, Monica hadn't had much sleep but she knew that the now two month old baby Daniel was fine and breathing on his own. Today was an important day for Rachel and Daniel. This morning Rachel and Ross would see their new baby for the first time and then in the afternoon it was Daniel's welcome home party. Everyone was really pleased about Daniel coming home.

Joey and Alex had set a date for their wedding and it was getting closer and closer too quickly. They had just under six weeks until the wedding and apart from booking the church and the hall for the reception they had done nothing, at all. Alex wanted a huge white wedding, something that she never had the first time around, she was just so relieved that Joey had got the lead in a new movie because if he hadn't there would be no wedding at all. They still weren't completely unpacked from the move into the new house that was just down the street from Monica and Chandler's, Rachel and Ross's and Phoebe and Mike's. So Alex had a lot to do if they were going to all get ready at their new house. First on her list was bridesmaids dresses. With Rachel as maid of honor, Phoebe and Monica as bridesmaids, Emma, Charlotte, Erica, Libby, Summer, Daisy and Lola as bridesmaids and Jack, and Daniel as page boys there were lots to do. Alex was slightly worried about Joey though, he had been working doubly hard to pay for this wedding and therefore they weren't seeing much of each other. Alex just hoped that once the money from the movie came in he would relax a bit and they could go back to having sex, spending time together and doing whatever else people who are about to get married do.

Ross and Rachel sat nervously in the waiting room ready for the sonogram. There were three other couples in the room waiting too and then a single girl on her own, the poor girl can only have been 17 years old and was crying. Rachel couldn't stand it any more, she decided that she simply had to go and speak to her, she walked across the room, stroking her bump that was starting to show.

"Rachel Geller" the nurse called out Rachel's name and Rachel turned on her heel and went into the room, Ross followed behind "take a seat, right Mrs. Geller, number three congratulations, how are the girls doing"

"thanks" Rachel felt so warm and happy, she was here with her husband and she was about to see her third child for the first time "Emma's doing well at school and Charlotte is crawling now"

"Great" the nurse set up the equipment while Rachel sat herself on the special chair and lifted her top to show her tummy. "so here we go then, baby number three"

Ross and Rachel both had their eyes fixated on the screen waiting for their baby to appear and then get a photo taken so they could show their friends. As the image came up on the screen Ross noticed something different about it "that doesn't look like Emma or Charlotte did" Ross was silently panicking but doing his best to hide it from Rachel

"is there something wrong?" Rachel noticed that something was different as well

"there's nothing wrong" the nurse took a deep breath "you have nonidentical twins"

Ross and Rachel had no idea of what to think say or do. They didn't have enough stuff for twins. Rachel's first thought was that she would have to go shopping for more stuff and Ross's first though was OH MY GOD

"Twins?" Ross almost freaked out "twins? How can it be twins"

"Well," the nurse interrupted Ross's thoughts "Rachel released two eggs and your sperm has fertilized both of them. They've both attached to Rachel's womb so this is number three and four!" the nurse's joy was a lot more than Ross and Rachel's "would you like a photo"

"Yes please" Rachel managed to say something, finally "because otherwise I don't think I'll believe it"

Almost two hours after coming out of the sonogram Ross and Rachel were still sitting in the Mercedes contemplating what they were going to do.

"We're going to need a bigger car" Ross nodded his head so much that it almost scared Rachel "and two more cots"

"I'm really excited though" Rachel smiled and rubbed her ever growing bump "I'm so pleased that we are having twins."

"Me too" Ross confessed the news had finally sunk in and Ross was so pleased about it, his initial reaction had been through shock, now though he was looking forward to having two more babies "Rachel, we're going to have twins"

"I know" Rachel lent forward and gave him a big hug "we're going to have to come up with some other names now"

"Can we discuss it later?" Rachel was very excited, but thinking about what names she would want for her twins "I want to get home and show the guys my babies"

Ross and Rachel got home just in time for the beginning of the party. They decided that stealing Monica's thunder with a big announcement wasn't the way to do it. Instead they decided to tell each of their friends and their parents one at a time. They were really pleased that big news like this had come to light the same day as there was going to be a big party as it meant they didn't have to drive to Ross's parents house as well as they would have to drive to Rachel's parents.

"Hey" Monica caught them as they came in "so did you get a picture of the baby?"

"Yes" Rachel looked at Ross and just handed Monica the picture, Rachel knew that she would figure it out herself "there's the picture"

"Rachel, there's two on this" it took Monica a second, but she soon realized exactly what two babies in the picture meant and a grin gradually appeared on her face "are you having twins?"

"Yes" Ross smiled, so pleased that Monica wasn't jealous or thinking that they were stealing her thunder "we're going to have twins"

"are you going to announce it at the party?" Monica quietly hoped that that wasn't what they planned to do because Monica didn't want the whole evening to focus on Ross and Rachel's twins, she wanted some of the evening to focus on the fact that her son had been released from hospital after nearly dying

"No" Rachel assured her, expecting this "we're going to tell the rest of the guys and your mom and dad but that's it"

"Hey Ross, Rachel" Judy and Jack Geller came over to them and gave each of the a hug each "how are you doing?"

"We're fine" Rachel glanced at Ross, who nodded knowing exactly what Rachel wanted to say "I'm pregnant"

"Pregnant?" Judy smiled, extremely pleased that grandchild number seven was on it's way "congratulations"

"there's more" Ross added, even more excited than before "we're having nonidentical twins"

"Twins?" Jack Senior asked excitedly "wow, I can't believe, two sets of twins in the family"

"Congratulations you two" Judy was very happy, almost too happy "how pregnant are you?"

"twelve weeks" Rachel handed them the picture of their twins "isn't it exciting?"

"oh yes" Judy started crying "I'm going to have eight grandchildren"

"and you never thought we would have any" Jack Senior added "how wrong you were"


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter Twenty Six**

after the party the only piece of information on everyone's minds was Rachel and Ross's twins and how exciting it was that in around five or six months they would be here. Judy spent most of the evening crying over her grandchildren. The eight grandchildren she never thought she would have. Monica thought that she would have been upset about Rachel and Ross stealing her thunder but she wasn't. Just a few years ago she would have thrown a tantrum but now she had obviously grown up, this was both surprising and pleasing for Chandler and Monica alike.

"I knew it was going to be a multiple birth" Phoebe told Rachel very loudly while cleaning up after the party "because when I was pregnant with the triplets I started showing almost straight away"

"Oh" Rachel thought about it, she was a lot bigger now with the twins than she was with either Emma or Charlotte, multiple births simply hadn't come to her mind. "why didn't you say anything?"

"because I didn't want to worry you" Phoebe answered, almost offended that Rachel didn't know that she thought she was doing the right thing "and I'm not always right, just most of the time,"

"okay, Pheebs" Rachel took a deep breath and thought about how she was going to word the next sentence "if this ever happens again don't think of it as worrying me, think of it as preparing me, okay"

"Okay" Phoebe responded, thinking that it should have been obvious to Rachel that there was more than one in there, but not wanting to get into a big argument about it "but this isn't likely to happen again"

"so twins" Alex added trying to take the tense atmosphere around the situation away "have you decided on names yet?"

"Yes" Rachel answered, moving on swiftly before Phoebe started to get funny again but also really excited about revealing the beautiful names that she and Ross had discussed in the Porsche on the way home "we're sticking with Lucas and Bethanie, but the other names we've decided on are Maisie and Harry, so it will be two of them"

"oh I love Maisie" Alex smiled thinking that Joey would never go for simple cute names like Emma, Charlotte, Bethanie or Maisie for a little girl "and Lucas is so cute"

Ross finally had a chance to sit down on the couch and look at his beautiful wife, he could see those little babies forming the bump that was just about showing over her jeans. Wow, he thought she was beautiful when she was pregnant, he tried to imagine the babies that she was carrying, what they would look like and what they would be like, he had done the same with Emma and Charlotte but it was almost impossible to get right. He still imagined what Emma and Charlotte would be like when they were older. He thought that Emma was going to be his little genius and Charlotte was going to be the one who wanted to follow her mother into fashion, Rachel already had both of the girls signed up for modeling but to Ross's surprise not many calls had come in.

"You okay son?" Jack senior sat down on the couch and next to his son. He always seemed to know when Ross needed a chat, ever since Ross was young he knew what to say to Ross and how to comfort him "what's the matter?"

"Nothing, dad" Ross answered truthfully, and Jack believed him "I'm just admiring my beautiful wife in all her glory, I mean look at her, she's amazing, and you can see our twins peeking up over her jeans, how amazing is she, how wonderful is she?"

"I know, son" Jack knew exactly what Ross was feeling, he had felt the very same thing about his wife when she had been pregnant with both Ross and Monica. "You know I'm proud of you, don't you?"

Ross looked into his dad's eyes and made a silent promise to him "I know dad, I know you're proud of me, and you know the way I feel about Rachel, Ben and the girls, I learned it all from you,"

"Really?" Jack was genuinely touched by what his son said to him "Ross, that means an awful lot to me"

"Dad," Ross looked at Rachel, who by now had finished talking to Alex and was listening to the conversation between Ross and Jack "I love that lady over there more than anything else in the world, and" Ross pointed over to where Emma and Charlotte were playing nicely "I love those girls too, my family is my world, dad, and I owe it all to Rachel, wonderful amazing Rachel."

"I know" Jack gave his son a hug, he could tell that Ross was in one of those moods where he felt like his heart was about to burst with love for the little family he had created and was now growing into a very large family "son, you really need to tell Rachel about your feelings for her"

"I do" Ross assured him "I spent over ten years not saying that to her, living without her, feeling lonely, aching for Rachel Greene, now she's Rachel Geller and I make sure I tell her in the morning when we wake up, in the evening before we go to bed and at least once during the day how much I love her and the girls."

"Well, that's good" Jack was very proud of both of his children, Monica had dealt with almost loosing her son in a very mature way and Ross was bursting with pride and love for his wife and his girls.

"Hey Ross" Rachel walked over and gave her husband a big kiss Rachel knew that Ross loved her very deeply, but very rarely had Ross been so truthful to someone other than her about the way he felt about everyone, she knew that it was because of the twins that he was saying all this, but she knew he meant it and felt it every day "I heard what you were saying"

"about what, honey?" Ross was over come by her beauty, as he seemed to be all the time just wanting to cover her with kisses and hold her forever and a day "I've said a lot of things"

"about how much you love me" Rachel lent down and kissed him again, on the lips "you know I love you too right?"

"Of course" Ross kissed her bump, his twins were growing in there and he wanted to protect her and all five of his children "the evidence is right there, growing inside you and making you as sick as a dog"

"I'm not feeling to bad today" Rachel smiled, she was really in the mood for a ice cream and gravy right now "I'm going to take the girls home, see you there"

Ross watched Rachel pick up Charlotte, grab Emma by the hand and walk out of the door after saying her goodbyes to everyone. Ross turned to his father and changed the subject completely. "So how's Richard doing?" Monica had asked Ross to find out from their dad how he was

"Not good" Jack answered honestly "he has lung cancer, they say it's because of all of the cigars"

"Oh no" Ross genuinely felt sorry for the bloke who stamped on his sisters heart all those years ago and impregnated her nine months ago "is it terminal?"

"Yes" Jack could feel a tear falling from his eye "he's got six months to live

This put Ross in an impossible situation, he didn't know what to do. Ross knew that if Monica found out about Richard she would want to find out if Richard was the father or not so that she could tell Daniel when he was older. Ross knew that if he told Monica he had the potential to break his brother-in-law's heart, he also knew that, as Richard was a close family friend, Monica would find out at some point, Ross decided that Rachel would have some idea of what to do, so he excused himself from the last little bit of cleaning up and went over to his place.

"Rachel" Ross called out in the house, and then scolded himself, it was late and he knew that Rachel was probably upstairs putting those beautiful girls to bed. Instead of calling out again, he went upstairs to his girls rooms to say goodnight. When he got there Emma was asleep, so he lightly stroked her hair, gave her a kiss and crept out of the room, shutting the door quietly. As he left the room he thought about a few months ago when they had sprinkled glitter or 'fairy dust' to get rid of the 'scary monsters' that lived under Emma's bed. Since the 'fairy dust' had been sprinkled there had been no mention of the 'scary monsters' and Rachel and Ross had plenty of time for mommy and daddy time. Ross walked up to Charlotte's room and quietly opened the door. Rachel was sitting on the feeding chair giving Charlotte her bottle. Rachel had stopped breast feeding as soon as she realized that she was pregnant, Charlotte was nearly a year old and now she was only having formula in the morning, evening and once during the day.

"Hey beautiful" Ross walked over to Rachel and gave her a kiss on the cheek "how's it going?"

"not too bad" Rachel kissed him back, this time on the lips "you okay?"

"Yeah," Ross took a deep breath, he wasn't scared about telling his wife about Richard, but it was big news and would probably take Rachel by surprise "Monica asked me to ask dad about Richard

"Yeah, you told me" Rachel looked puzzled as to why Ross was telling her something that she already knew and wasn't sure how she felt about it "is something wrong with Richard"

Ross nodded and a tear fell from his eye, although Richard wasn't on his favorite people list he was still his dad's best friend. Ross and Rachel had a lot of memories of growing up around Richard Burke so to find out that he was terminally ill was very upsetting for Ross and he knew that Rachel would be upset too "he's terminally ill with lung cancer, he's got six months to live"

"Six months?" Rachel didn't know what to say, but she did know that Monica would find out some how and Rachel felt that Ross should be the one to tell her "you've got to tell Monica?"

"I thought you were going to say that" Ross knew Rachel was right, he just had to re affirm these thoughts and feelings with a second opinion "but when do I tell her, and how"

"Tell her now" Rachel handed Charlotte, who's bottle had just finished, to Ross who gave her a kiss "you put her to bed, I'll call Monica"

Twenty minutes later Monica was sitting on the couch that Charlotte and the twins had been conceived on. Monica knew that this was the one but it didn't really register with her. Rachel had told her that this was big news, but Chandler shouldn't hear the news.

"Okay" Monica mentally prepared herself for what Ross was going to say. There was no question in Monica's mind that this was about Richard, and it wasn't good news. "tell me what's wrong with Richard"

"he has cancer" Ross could see Monica was very upset, she lowered herself right back into the couch, and for the first time in almost two years Ross didn't laugh of the thought of the couch. "Monica, it's terminal, he has six months to live"

Monica went as white as a sheet. Regardless of what Richard had done to her she had very fond memories of growing up with Richard, just as Ross and Rachel did. Monica didn't say anything. She simply got up and walked out the door. Rachel and Ross knew that this wasn't because she was angry with them for telling her, she knew they had done the right thing. It was just Monica's way of getting out of the situation that dealing with would be very difficult now.

Rachel and Ross didn't stay up very late that night. Rachel had already decided that the whole family would go into the city the next day to shop for all the things she needed for the twins and it was already quite late. She hoped that as Emma had gone to bed late she wouldn't wake up too early in the morning. Rachel loved the summer, Ross had lots of time off, Emma was off school and this gave the whole family the chance to be a family. Rachel loved this idea.


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter Twenty Seven**

After six weeks of waiting the day of Alex and Joey's wedding finally arrived. With Monica, Rachel and Phoebe's help in different ways the managed to get it all sorted in the limited time that they had, just. All the girls looked beautiful although at four and a half months pregnant with twins Rachel didn't exactly feel beautiful, she felt like a beached whale and knew that a lot of people would have had the same feelings about her. This pregnancy had really made Rachel suffer, her feet had swollen, her boobs were really tender and she had felt constantly sick for the whole of the pregnancy so far, and she kept telling everyone that Ross was getting the snip after the twins were born, which Rachel intended to keep too. Ross, on the other hand wasn't so sure if this was the way it was going to work but he was keeping quiet about it in the mean time, he would deal with it if and when the time came. The wedding went without a hitch, they all said the right name, no body was drunk and no body was gay. All on their first time. Ross thought that was good going, seeing as it took him four attempts and three women to get it right. Alex's dress was beautiful, it was a pure white corset top with lacy patterns down the side, the dress part was silk, it must have cost Alex and Joey the earth, but Joey thought that it was all worth it for the way Alex made him feel when he saw her, he wanted her right there and then in that church, he wanted to hold on to her and love her for the rest of the time, but he managed to control himself long enough to say his vowels and enjoy the reception. Emma, Charlotte, Libby, Summer, Daisy, Erica and Lola looked beautiful in their dresses and Jack looked amazing as a page boy. The reception was a big do, as Joey had seven sisters there were a lot of drunken girls Joey watched his nephew Michael cringe as his mother, Gena enjoyed dancing with almost every man at the party. Chandler did his best to stay sober seeing as the last time he had come into contact with Joey's sisters he ended up making out with them and then forgot which one. No one ending up making out with any of Joey's sisters except Gena's boyfriend, and Joey was okay with that.

Rachel and Ross drove back home very late and Emma and Charlotte, as both Rachel and Ross anticipated, both fell asleep in the car it had been a long day and Rachel ended up throwing up everything that she ate, in fact she wasn't far away from falling asleep either, however she really shouldn't have because she was the one in the driving seat and Ross had drunk too much to drive.

"Didn't Alex look beautiful" Rachel pictured Alex's dress in her mind, she tried remembering every little detail, but doing that and driving at the same time wasn't the best idea in the world as her concentration wasn't very good, Rachel thought that chatting would be the best thing to do to keep her awake "Joey's done very well with her, hes obviously in love with her"

"I know" Ross remembered how Joey had got extremely emotional as he said his vowels "I can't believe all six of us are married now" Ross shook his head, it had taken them long enough but finally they had all settled down

"I know, and we all have kids" Rachel added, really happy with everything that was going on in her life at the moment, finally "wonderful, beautiful well behaved kids"

"Six weeks until we find out what we've got in there" Ross was very excited and gently patted her stomach that seemed like it was growing by the second he really wanted a little boy with Rachel, but he didn't really mind what they had as long as they were both healthy and beautiful "can't wait!"

"I know" Rachel was very excited, "I would prefer either two boys or a girl and a boy, but I don't really mind"

"Me too" Ross agreed "but really it doesn't matter, their ours, as long as their healthy that will be enough for me"

"Ross, you are lovely" Rachel smiled and winked at her husband, she was feeling a little bit naughty, but wasn't completely sure how they would do it or if she even wanted to seeing as she looked like a beached whale "you're so sexy"

Ross looked at her with that look in his eye. He knew what she wanted, or at least what he thought she wanted, but he wasn't sure how they would manage it either, she would either have to be on top or they would have to do it doggy style. Either way, he didn't mind in fact he was really looking forward to it, if it happened. "are you saying what I think you are saying?"

"What do you think I'm saying?" Rachel winked at him seductively

"that you want to have sex?" Ross was hopeful, but he knew his wife pretty well and thought that he had read the signs correctly "don't you?"

Rachel looked out the window and watched the road ahead, that is what she had wanted, but she was going to let him think about it "you'll see when we get home"

When Rachel got home she was so tired that she really didn't think that sex was on the cards, in fact the only thing that was on the cards was sleeping. Ross carried Emma and Charlotte up to bed one by one and then collapsed into bed himself

"I don't think I can do anything tonight honey" Rachel confessed, these two beautiful babies were talking a lot out of her "I'm sorry"

"it's okay" Ross didn't feel like it either "I'm so tired I think it's the alcohol"

"Okay well night then" Rachel rolled over and shut her eyes, that night, though it took her a long time to go to sleep. Probably because the twins seemed to be fighting for the best place in her uterus

"Night, Rach" Ross gave her a kiss on the forehead and rolled onto his tummy to go to sleep. Ross couldn't wait for the next six weeks to pass by. He wanted to know if he was having two boys or two girls or a boy and a girl, desperatly.


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter Twenty Eight**

As marriages go, Ross thought that his to Rachel was just about the most perfect marriage he had ever known of, and of course, he had lots to compare with. His first marriage had ended because his wife was a lesbian, he wasn't, and apparently it wasn't a mix and match situation. His second marriage had ended even before it had began. Ross had inadvertently said the name of the girl he would finally end up with the wedding Rachel, not Emily, it kinda was inevitable that his wife had not been happy to carry on with the marriage. But this time, although it was his second marriage to Rachel, he thought he had made the right decision. Obviously having Charlotte and now the twins meant that they were still obviously very much in love. Tomorrow was the day that they would find out if the babies were healthy and what they were having. Ross really hoped for at least one boy but deep down he honestly didn't mind. That night, however, he couldn't sleep, it was always the same the night before the twenty four week sonogram. It was excitement of what was coming, Ross had read books about twin pregnancies and knew that twins could be born anytime from now, and survive, although the longer they stayed put the better really. Rachel had only just dropped off to sleep when one of the twins obviously squeezed her bladder and woke her up, she hated this but it meant another trip to the bathroom and she had to get up again.

"you okay, Rach?" Ross gently stroked Rachel's ass as she waddled past him, she thought it was sexy, but no way was she in the mood for anything over than going back to bed to try at get 10 seconds sleep before she needed to go to the bathroom again "excited about tomorrow?"

"Of course" Rachel was very excited, but right now she didn't feel excited, she just felt tired, exhausted, "I don't know how I'm going to feel though"

"you'll feel great" Ross assured her, you'll fall right in love with them"

"I know" Rachel reassured herself, she always worried how she would feel after a scan, but she always felt wonderful, well previously she had done anyway "I'm sorry, you know how I always feel about things like this, I worry that something is going to be wrong with the twins and then I don't know what to do about it."

"I know, sweetie" Ross ran his fingers through his wife's hair, it was getting long again, she really should have it cut before the twins made their appearance. "Try not to worry, I know everything will be fine"

"I wish I shared your optimism" Rachel yawned really loudly, it almost scared Ross, "I'm going to try at get some sleep before tomorrow"

"Okay honey" Ross stared into the eyes of his wife, they looked tired, like she hadn't slept in weeks, but still as beautiful as ever. "sleep well"

"baby mine, don't you cry" Rachel sang her favorite song to Charlotte the next morning after a little accident, ever since Emma had been about three Rachel had sung the song to her girls when ever they got upset "baby mine, dry your eyes, rest your head close to my heart, never to part baby of mine"

"little one, when you play don't you mind, what they say" Ross joined in with the serenading with his currently youngest daughter "let those eyes sparkle and shine, never a tear, baby of mine"

"if they knew sweet little you" it was Rachel's turn this was the way Rachel and Ross always sung it if they were both there, other wise they would just sing it alone, all the way through "they'd end up loving you too"

"all those same people who scold you, what they'd give just for the right to hold you"

"from your head, down to your toes, you're not much, goodness knows"

"but your so precious to me, sweet as can be, baby of mine"

both Charlotte and Emma loved it when their parents sung baby of mine to them. Rachel had discovered the song on an impulse buy of a Alison Kruss CD about two years ago, she also recognized the song from the Dumbo soundtrack. It had been Emma's accident when she fell off the swing that had started the singing of the song, it had been playing on the CD player in the kitchen and Rachel just sang along. It had cheered Emma up no end and Rachel was then able to deal with the problem at hand without a screaming toddler at the same time. Ross had seen the benefits and joined in. this time Charlotte had simply fallen back while trying to stand up. Her birthday hadn't been too long ago and for her birthday Uncle Chandler and Auntie Monica had purchased a walker for Charlotte. This had been the cause of the accident, this time. Charlotte hadn't understood the power of gravity and had put too much weight on the handle causing it to tip over. Charlotte's accident was a few seconds where Rachel didn't have to worry about the up and coming sonogram later that morning. Emma was in school and therefore Rachel just had to take Charlotte, she knew this would be much better than having Emma asking lots of questions.

Before they knew it Charlotte's accident had been completely forgotten about and they were now faced with the twenty minute wait due to the appointments running behind. Rachel was twiddling her thumbs while Ross was boring Charlotte with stories of dinosaurs and fossils he had told Rachel and Emma on many occasions. Emma, however loved the stories about the dinosaurs and was completely to home with her dad in a museum. Charlotte, however, didn't have the same interest in history as her much older sister and fell asleep. Finally after what turned out to be a forty minute wait Rachel Geller was called forward for her moment of truth.

"Well, Mrs. Geller" the doctor started, Rachel shut her eyes in anticipation for what was going to be said next "it all looks fine"

"Really" Rachel relaxed and a major weight seemed to be lifted from her shoulders. Thank goodness everything was okay, she could be happy now. "Can you tell me what I've got?"

"Sure" the nurse did whatever she did to find out what the babies were, Ross and Rachel both held their breath "well, this one" she pointed to the baby on the left had side of the screen "is a girl"

"Three girls?" Ross laughed, shaking his head "I better start saving for the weddings now"

"and this" the nurse pointed to the little life that was growing on the right hand side of Rachel's uterus "is a boy"

"a what?" Ross pulled the monitor closer to him, and burst into tears "I've got a son, with Rachel?" he shook his head again, obviously overwhelmed with the piece of information he had just been given "and Ben's got a brother?"

Rachel put her hand on his shoulder and looked closer at the monitor "see, those in there?" she looked at Ross who nodded slowly "that's Lucas and Maisie"

"Lucas and Maisie" Ross reported, still nodding his head in exactly the same motion Ross's tears were coming thick and fast now "hey Lucas, hey Maisie I can't wait to meet you, you have the best mom in the world"

"and a brother and two sisters waiting" Rachel joined in, hoping that they could hear her but knowing the probably couldn't "and a wonderful father" Rachel looked up at Ross and they kissed tenderly on the lips. In that instant Rachel felt even more protective of the now named twins, Lucas and Maisie growing in her uterus, she knew she would feel this way, and once again she fell deeply in love with her babies, and of course even more in love with Ross. Rachel always wondered whether she ever had any more love to give but she always seemed to find it from somewhere, hidden right at the bottom of her heart, which, as it turned out, was a bottomless pit.


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter Twenty Nine**

By the time Ross got home from his night out with the boys in celebration of everything that had happened in the last few months it was very late. Rachel was tucked up in bed sleeping soundly. Ross wondered how long she had been there and how long it would be until either Lucas or Maisie woke her up again by squeezing her bladder or just moving a bit. Some days Ross couldn't help but watch Rachel sleep, she looked so peaceful and calm seemingly oblivious to all her daytime worries, and wonder what she was dreaming about. He always hoped and prayed that, naturally, she was dreaming of him and her together. Sometimes with the children as well all having a lovely time on the beach or in a restaurant, he hoped she was dreaming about the new babies that were going to be here in no longer than twelve weeks and wondering what they would look like, or perhaps she was dreaming back to a simpler time when she lived in the apartment in the city with Monica and he lived a stone's throw away. The way he would sweep her of her feet as she finished a busy day's work as a waitress at Central Perk, the way they would spend countless evenings together in the museum sometimes looking at the stars in the planetarium and sometimes waking up under animal skins that were meant to be countless of years old. He knew that probably though, she was dreaming about the future, because when she thought about the past she always ended up finishing up with Ross sleeping with Chloe from the copy place. A time in Rachel's life that was still hurtful at the mention or even the thought of. The future was the thing to be thinking about right now and that was all they cared about.

No sooner had he settled into watching Rachel did she wake up. Another trip to the bathroom was inevitable and Ross watched her walk away in complete awe of her beauty even though she was six months pregnant, with twins. He was still staring at the door of their en suite when she came out. To Rachel, however, this didn't come across as weird, but instead comforting, she noted silently to herself that if he hadn't have been staring at the door, watching for her to come out she would wonder why.

"Did you have a good night" Rachel waddled as elegantly as Lucas and Maisie would allow her to at 2 o'clock on a Sunday morning "did the others enjoy themselves?"

"Sure" Ross answered truthfully, "Mike got very drunk though, I had to help him get home"

Rachel giggled for a split second. Mike would always be the one to forget how many drinks he had consumed and end up flat on the floor before anyone else had even begun to get tipsy. "is he okay"

"Of course" Ross nodded is head in humor "Phoebe will look after him, she's had a lot of practice."

Rachel climbed back onto the bed and beckoned Ross to join her. She didn't want anything too strenuous, just a cuddle would be enough right now. Ross decided to take it one step further, which Rachel didn't mind one little bit, and lent forward to give her a kiss. Rachel took all of Ross in, she breathed in his scent. A beautiful scent of his Georgio Armani aftershave mixed with beer. Wow that sure took her back, she remembered nights out just after they had moved away from the city. The lure of the old bars and clubs which they never really frequented before moving suddenly had a big appeal, they would drop Emma of at Ross's parents and go into the city for drinks and sex in public restrooms and hotels just like they felt they had both missed out on in their late teens. Now, however, was a completely different story. As soon as Charlotte had been conceived those mad weekends became more and more infrequent and then disappeared altogether, much to Ross's satisfaction. He had felt them getting to old for that kind of thing anyway, as she kissed him she drank in the taste of beer on his tongue, again she thought of times before when he had come in late after going for a drink with work mates. He had always promised her that he would have just one or two, and as promised after consuming not nearly enough alcohol to even start affecting Ross but enough to have Mike on the floor he would walk into the house and, when she wasn't pregnant, make wonderful tender love to his wife for as long as either of them could last. Tonight, however, he had become a little bit tipsy and was pleased that the bar was only across the road which meant they didn't have to select a driver for the evening. Sometimes they all commented on how they could probably do with borrowing a stroller for Mike to be pushed home in rather than carried by two of them, when this had been brought up, however, Rachel added that that wasn't a very good idea because he would probably end up breaking the stroller they would then have one very drunk heavily built man and a broken stroller to bring home.

"I love you" Ross promised his wife. He had promised his wife the same thing more times than she could remember today and Rachel was grateful for his constant reassurance of his love for her. "I love you so much"

"I love you too"

"Ross, Ross" Chandler called to his best mate down the phone, it was very early the next morning, and Ross felt like he had only had twenty minutes sleep. Chandler, however was obviously very concerned for some reason that at that point in time Ross couldn't begin to think of "Monica's told me"

"Huh" Ross knew that wasn't the best response right now, but he didn't know what to do. He knew what Chandler was talking about, but didn't know just how much Monica had told him. What to do? Did he confess to Chandler that he knew, or did he lie and ask him what he was talking about. Ross knew that either way he would get either himself or his sister in trouble, he decided to go for the 'what are you talking about' option and pray for the best. He realized, that way, that he still had a get out clause should he feel the need to use it "what's up man?"

"Monica told me about Daniel" Chandler seemed more upset rather than angry, which Ross could understand completely. It had been Chandler that had sat up night after night with the tiny baby that, at that point, he had believed to be his first biological son. "she told me that there's a chance that he could be Richard's son, she also told me that you and Rachel knew about it"

right, that got Ross out of making one decision, he decided that from this point in the conversation he would be totally honest with his brother-in-law, he knew what the next question would be, it was inevitable, if it was the other way round, he would ask it too, "I'm sorry man" Ross went in for the kill with the reason "we just thought it was up to Monica to tell you"

"It's okay, I'm not upset with you" Chandler paused for a minute, Ross knew that he was trying to get rid of the lump that had undoubtedly formed in his throat "how could she do it too me, Ross, how could she cheat on me, with Richard of all people"

"I honestly don't know" by this time Ross could feel his pain, it sent him right back to how he felt when his first wife, Carol had cheated on him with the woman that she went on to marry. He could also see the other side of it, he had no idea why he had slept with Chloe from the copy place when he was insanely in love with Rachel "do you wanna stay here?"

"No, man" Chandler wasn't very sure in his answer, but it had been his gut reaction to the question so decided to stick with it, for the moment "I want to make my marriage work"

Ross was surprised and also impressed with his brother-in-law's reaction to learning that his arch enemy had potentially impregnated his wife. He knew that Chandler had obviously grown up in his relationship and that marriage had matured him, greatly "you sure man?"

"Yes" Chandler had decided in a split second, without much thought to the whole situation to "do you know what I want to do?"

"What Chandler, what do you want to do?"

"Go out, I wanna go out tonight and drink myself into the gutter, play the cheated on husband for one night, drown my sorrows before I have to sort things out and start forgiving Monica tomorrow, can we do that?"

"I don't know" Ross tried to think of a reason to why he may not be able to go out and paint the town red again with Chandler. He kinda had the idea that this wouldn't be as pleasant as the night before, that it would be stories of all of their old relationships and things that were wrong with their current relationship. Ross had no problems with Rachel and he didn't particularly want to talk about Carol, Bonnie, Emily, Elizabeth, Mona and any other girlfriends that he had had in the past. Plus he didn't want to leave Rachel to put the girls to bed and be alone for the second night in a row "can I think about it?"

"Sure" Chandler answered half heatedly, it was obvious that he was very upset that his best mate wasn't coming out with him when he had asked specifically for Ross to come "but please come, it wont be the same without you"

Monica sat rooted to the couch like a zombie, she didn't know what to do or where to turn. She knew that she was the one who was in the wrong so could go to no one for comfort or understanding because there simply was none. What a silly thing to have done, to slept with an old flame and before Chandler, the love of her life, then she cursed herself, actually she wouldn't go back because then Daniel wouldn't be there. Well she had certainly got herself into a little bit of a situation. The question was, how was she going to sort things out. Once her and Chandler were sorted in what they were going to do she would have to tell Richard, she decided that she was going to give Chandler to chance to go with her, although she didn't know how either of the men would feel about it, she didn't care what Richard thought, but she desperately wanted Chandler to be happy with anything she said or did with regards to Daniel, who she wanted to remain Chandler's son in every one else's eyes. It was 2:30am, Chandler was not yet back from the club or wherever they had ended up. Monica decided to go to bed. Sitting here waiting for Chandler, was probably not the best idea that she had ever had, she was pleased that at last minute Ross had changed his mind and gone with them. She didn't trust Joey and Mike with Chandler on their own. Especially in the circumstances that they were in, Monica knew that should anything go catastrophically wrong Ross would either call her or have the facilities to sort it out.

Monica traipsed up the wooden staircase running her fingers across the delicately carved banisters that she and Rachel had chosen together, there were two that they both loved so they had decided to get one each. Monica's was the most intricate designed of the two. Slowly, slowly, Monica climbed up the stairs, hoping that at some point between now and when she finally curled into bed Chandler would walk in and come and join her.

Monica made it to the top of the stairs, still no Chandler, one by one she checked on the kids, into Jack's room, still no Chandler, into Erica's room, still no Chandler, finally into Daniel's room, still no Chandler. Monica simply gave up. That was the end of her day, at some point very soon Daniel would be wanting a night feed, she wanted the energy to get up and do that successfully. Plus, you never know, Chandler might be home by then.


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter Thirty**

It was 3:30am and Joey had just got in. Alex was sound asleep in their bed alone and probably subconsciously waiting for Joey to return home and Lola-Marie was fast asleep too, in her new bedroom beautifully decorated in yellow and pink with randomly painted animals all over the walls. Joey was finally done moving everything from LA into the new house and the old LA house was on the market. Everything in Joey's life was going very well. He was back where he belonged, in New York with his bestest friends, Alexis Tribbianni, his beautiful wife and Lola-Marie his wonderful daughter. He had this beautiful house, which was even better than the old one he had given up in LA. He was grateful to Alex for agreeing to the big move, he knew what she had given up to be here, a wonderful apartment, her family, her job. He thought that one day she would go back to being a lawyer, but then he also thought that Rachel would go back to working in fashion, Monica to working in a restaurant and Phoebe to giving free massages outside the UN, selling knives, teaching a massage yourself at home class, playing guitar or whatever quirky idea was the latest at that moment, there were lots of possibilities for Phoebe when it came to jobs and Joey didn't even want to begin to think about what the next thing would be. But he did know that, for now, they were all happy as stay at home moms with the eleven children they had between them. With that thought Joey had to sit down he was suddenly overwhelmed by the thought of everything that had happened to him recently, he thought back ten years. If some one had told him ten years ago that today he would've been in two successful television shows, a real movie, had a brief fling with Carmen Electra, found the woman of his dreams, got married and had a kid he would probably laughed you out of central perk and then asked Chandler to pay his bill. Life was completely different now, they all knew it and they all loved it. The next thing but one on his list was a dog. A beautiful pet dog for him, Alex and Lola to enjoy for the next fourteen or so years. But first he wanted a holiday. Somewhere really hot and sunny, somewhere they hadn't been before and somewhere that not one of the other people would have thought of and he wanted all nineteen of them to go. Well, if that was going to happen it would have to be in the school holidays, and he would have to get to organizing it straight away.

Mike was hammered again. Phoebe knew that him going out two nights in a row was asking for trouble. On previous occasions, when he had woken up on the Sunday morning or afternoon, depending on how good or bad the night was, he had been good for nothing. The girls would all dance around him speaking particularly loud for a Sunday afternoon and making really unrealistic demands on him. Today, Libby had asked Mike to take her swimming, where their, now reaching four girl had got the idea that swimming would be fun Phoebe and Mike didn't know. When Mike declined, they didn't know what had hit them. Liberty Hannigan was, as everyone else was concerned, the blue eyed little girl, helpful, polite and generally well behaved, but on this fateful day she morphed from the wonderful girl into a monster. No swimming? Libby wasn't going to take no for an answer,

"I WANT TO GO SWIMMING!" Libby howled at the top of her lungs "DADDY, TAKE ME SWIMMING NOW!"

"No way" Mike answered as firm but fair as his hangover allowed him "Not after you shout at me like that, you'll be lucky if you can go and play with the others for the rest of the week!"

"DADDY I HATE YOU!" Libby screamed, tears falling down her face, Mike and Phoebe simply didn't know what to do. Where was that little girl who spoke politely when she was spoken too, never before had Phoebe allowed any of the girls to utter the words Daddy and Mommy in the same sentence as the world hate.

"Liberty Hannigan" Phoebe said in her sternest loud mommy voice that was one step away from being a shout "get up to your room, and stay there until I come and get you!"

Libby stayed still, rooted to the spot, Phoebe knew that her stubborn side was turned on today and Libby wouldn't back down until she was forced sobbing violently, that to the outside world it would have sounded like Phoebe, Mike, Summer and Daisy were all torturing this little girl into doing something that she had no intention of doing. Just at the wrong moment, the doorbell went. Phoebe was in silent negotiations with Libby who was starting to behave more like a teenager than a four year old and Mike's head really wasn't taking all the shouting and screaming, let alone dealing with the major task of opening the door. The doorbell went again and Mike reluctantly hoisted himself out of the couch that he had become quite comfortable and happy to sit on. Libby and Phoebe stayed exactly where they were until Libby gave up and stomped upstairs to her room.

Ross had seen the last bit of the commotion and wasn't exactly sure what to say. He knew who the offender was and he also knew her track record

"Sorry" Phoebe smiled at her friend just two seconds after hearing Libby's door close "Liberty appears to have found her temper, did you know she had a stubborn side?"

"It's okay" Ross remembered back to Emma's terrible two stage that seemed to start at sixteen months and not stop until she was five. Ross and Rachel had spent many an evening worrying about Emma starting school and would she throw a tantrum in front of her teacher, or worse any other parents. They needn't have worried though, because the week before her first day they had stopped, it was almost as if someone had pressed a switch and the old Emma Geller-Greene was back. She was slightly different of course. There was no Emma Geller-Greene, just Emma Geller and she was a few years older, slightly taller, and her hair had grown, but she was beautifully behaved again and Rachel and Ross were so pleased. "Charlotte's next, and if she's anything like her sister, that will be difficult to deal with."

"Just wait until the twins go through it," Mike added, unhelpfully "you wont know what's hit you"

"Thanks, Mike" Ross glanced him a 'you really shouldn't have said that, don't you dare tell Rachel' look and swiftly changed the subject "have you seen Chandler?"

"No" Mike thought for a moment, obviously trying to recall the shenanigans of the previous evening "at least not since I got up"

"which hasn't been long" Phoebe added obviously unimpressed by Mike's late awakening "why, haven't you?"

"No" Ross shook his head "Monica, called this morning, he didn't come home last night"

"We've not seen him" Phoebe clarified "have you tried Joey's?"

Ross nodded, clearly upset by the fact that his brother in law hadn't been seen since the previous evening "I have no idea where Chandler could be"

Chandler woke up with a start. He looked down at his watch 10:30am, Monica would be annoyed but suddenly he realized he didn't recognize these sheets, the pillows even the smell of the place was different had Monica brought new sheets, pillows and air fresheners while he'd been out? He looked around the room and then it hit him, why he didn't recognize anything about this bed. It wasn't his bed. He turned to look to his left hand side where Monica should have been and instead saw someone who had the power to make his balls jump back into his body. Janis.

"oh" Janis sang out loud "my Bing-a-Ling"

"Hi" Chandler thought for a second, what could be the worst thing that he could call her right now "just Janis"


End file.
